Broken Runes
by redwingblackbird
Summary: This story centers around two of my OCs, Kathy and Shadow. Kathy's pretty much a magnet for major, world-endangering trouble, so each chapter is pretty much a plot in and of itself- fair warning. Mostly a melodramatic romance betwixt the two.
1. The Beginning

Disclaimer: Neither Pharaohsservant nor Megalord own any of the following: The Care Bears, The YuGiOh Cast, references to The Lord of the Rings cast

**Disclaimer: Neither Redwingblackbird nor Megalord own any of the following: The YuGiOh Cast, any songs that are mentioned or quoted (or both or neither). Megalord, however, owns a good bit of the original text, so I have to give him credit. It'll be pretty obvious cuz his style is NOTHING like mine. AT. FREAKING. ALL.**

**Redwing:** I'm working on this to fill in plot holes. Me and Megalord started this a LONG FRIKING TIME AGO, but the original copy not only sucked, but we lost most of it due to a raging mom attack on his compy. He barely made it out alive! Isn't that right, buddy?

**Megalord:** in full body cast yeah...

**Redwing:** Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo this should probably explain the epilogue of YaKa (you didn't really think he was just gonna vanish, right?), the start of ShaKa, and stun Megalord by how strangely I can conclude this thing. OMG I LYK GAVE YALL SPOILERS! stabs self Now, before I start, you need to know: the first bit is the original opener, edited somewhat due to a bunch of the charries never showing up again, and whenever there's a double line, it's a change of view. I HATE writing whose view it IS, so... I'M NOT DOING IT! IF YOU CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT, YOU'RE A MORON!

Megalord- Now... its time 2 MAKEFUNOFYOUALLFORMAKINGMEGAY!!

Torch- +sweatdrop+ I don't know what u are talking about...

Megalord- True...BUT THEY DO!! +points to Kath, evie, and kels+

trio being pointed at-+shiftyeyes,shiftyeyes/speaks in unison+no we dont...

Torch- Riiiiiiiiiiiight. Ok, Shadow, can we start now?

Shadow- oh fine. TIMETOSTART!!

Kath, Evie, and Kels- WOOT!

Shadow- Ok, dont do that anymore.

Evie- sorry.  
--

--

_I'm so Bored..._ Shadow thought as he sat on the floor of his room_. I think Ill go annoy Torch!_

He got up from his room, and snuck to Torch's bedroom/pigsty. he slowly turned the doorknob, and lunged into the room, just to get broken teeth and a mouthful of cement. _Huh, he's usually here_...

And then he heard it. _HE'S PLAYING MY GAMES!!_

Shadow used his dark energy to sink into the floor and come back up behind Torch, all while creating his darkblade. "WHATAREYOUDOINGINMYROOM!" he yelled, making torch jump 50 feet into the air and start running.

"GET OUT OF MY ROOM!!"

"MOMMY!"

--

--

"C'mon, it doesn't take that long to pack!" Kath screamed up the stairs, pulling her long brown hair back.

"Yeah,yeah." yells another girl from up the stairs.

"Kels, we're finally getting out of this place cuz we finally found a house worth moving into. Move your freaking ASS!"

"COMING! DAMMIT!" Kels stumbled down the stairs, suitcases in either hand.

"EVIE, THAT GOES FOR YOU TOO!" A cat demon slumped down the stairs, looking somewhat dejected.

"But Kaaaaathyyyyyyyyy, it's only 8:30! And you KNOW my mornings start at the crack of noon..."

"Look, this move is going to take 5 hours," she started, rubbing her temples with long fingers. "I don't want to be doing it at night. Let's go."

--

--

" I'm sorry, Torch can't come to the phone, he's a bit tied up today." Shadow said tying his idiot brother up, then frustrated himself with one of his black-as-death locks. Torch was watching all this as he slowly melted the iron binds and ran off in a torrent of flames. _Got to get away, but to where?_ He then saw his greatest hiding spot, _his secret passage, of course!!_ He opened the hidden door and rushed in, nearly forgetting to close the door.

--  
--

"Finally, we're here!" Evie sighed as she turned toward the door. "OMG! I locked myself in the car!!"

"Pull the shiny thing, dip wad!!" Kath growled in frustration.

"oh, I knew that..." Evie said as she flopped to the ground and headed to the front door.

Kath opened the door. The birds here were friendly. A bit spooked for a reason she would have to explore later, but friendly.

"ONWARD TO VICTORY!" Evie screamed and ran through the now open door. Kath sighed. _Could they be any more stupid?_ She thought hard. _NO.  
_  
Then Evie's scream pierced her ears. _WTF??_

She ran inside. A kid was curled up in one of the corners. He glared at her, his eyes cold fire in the empty house. Kath couldn't explain her fear of the child to herself at all.

Then he flung a fireball at her, burning the side of her arm before she could so much as blink, much less dodge. Before he knew what was going on, she had his wrists tied behind his back with his floor-length red hair and demanded where he lived. With that information in hand, she dragged him across the street by that hair, not caring how much he kicked, screamed, and threatened to kill her. She rung the doorbell and waited, but she didn't have to wait long. Soon, the creaky door was opened by a teen her age, maybe a little older. His hair was as stupid-looking as his brother's- the family resemblance was obvious- and his eyes were dark, black almost. A chill went up her spine, but she ignored it, lifting the miscreant so his brother could see.

"Did you lose this?"

--

--

For the second time that day, Torch was being dragged by his hair between the same two houses- but this time in the opposite direction.

"You IDIOT!" his brother growled. "You just HAD to go off and pss off the neighbors, so you're going back to apologize!"

"No I'm not!" Torch screamed, squirming to try and escape. Shadow's grip, however, was like iron, and Torch would have to cut his hair before escaping, which he was not willing to do.

At length they reached Kath's house and knocked on the door. A girl with a purple stripe in her shoulder-length dirty blonde hair answered. _Dragon, _Shadow recognized immediately from the magical signature on her cloak-spell disguise.

"Yes?" she asked, standing so that they couldn't see past her into the house.

"We came to apologize, right Torch?" Shadow kicked his brother, who nodded dejectedly. The girl opened the door wider and called back into the house.

"SISSY?"

"WHAT?" the response came from the upstairs.

"SOME PEOPLE HERE TO SEE YA."

"BIT BUSY." The girl at the door turned back to them.

"So nice of you to come by, but you're gonna have to go-"

"KELS-KELS, DON'T BE INHOSPITABLE. I'LL BE RIGHT DOWN." The girl sighed.

"May I offer you some tea while my housemate finishes her bandaging?"

"Was she hurt?" Shadow asked, looking for another reason to punish Torch.

"She's been hurt worse," the dragon returned unhelpfully as she led them through the entryway and into the kitchen in the back, where a kettle was already streaming.

They sipped cups of floral tea and waited patiently. A third girl with long black hair and two black cat ears atop her head stared at the brothers and Shadow stared back. _Cat demon, not even bothering to disguise herself._

The girl that had brought Torch home entered silently and walked around the table to her friends. Shadow looked at her properly: shoulder-length brown hair, gray eyes that had become steel. He sensed she was more than she appeared, but could not pinpoint what. Like his own concealment spell, hers was of a high level that protected her from even those who knew what to look for.

"My brother wanted to apologize," he explained, and glanced to her arm when she turned her attention to Torch beside him. Her left arm was bandaged tightly from shoulder to elbow, and she was favoring it. How badly had his brother burned her?

Torch apologized in a mumble and Shadow smooth-talked their way out of the stares of the three. The injured one showed them the door. He turned to her.

"Here, let me heal that," he offered. "It's the least I can do." He rested his hand on the shoulder and sent his power into it. She shuddered away from him, but not before the bandages fell away, the injury gone. Anger crossed her face before she bid him good day and closed the door.

--

--

Who did he think he was? No one was allowed to heal... but it didn't matter. He couldn't have known.

For that matter, what was he? He was using a cloaking spell as strong as her own, so she had no idea what he was under the human facade.

His face was enchanting- an honest one, with a strong jaw and deep amethyst eyes. His black hair, like his brother's, reached the floor easily, and she found it ridiculous.

He was only trying to help, Kathy told herself, rubbing her shoulder.

--

--

Kathy was walking home the next day when she was joined, unexpectedly, by the older brother from across the street.

"I'm sorry, I don't think we were properly introduced yesterday."

"Kathy," she said. "You are?"

"Shadow. Not one for pleasantries, eh?"

"Not particularly."

"So... do you duel at all?" She abruptly stopped beside him.

"Duel Monsters?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "Do you play?"

"Yes," her answer was a wary question, gray eyes sharp- ready to roll with whatever he threw at her.

"Great!" he smiled. "We'll have to duel sometime!"

"Yeah," the girl answered with forced levity. What was wrong with her?

"So, Kelsey said you were out looking for a job."

"Yeah?"

"So, how'd it go?"

"I got a job," she said, her tone daring him to pry further. "What about you? Do you work?"

"Yes, I have to support myself and my brother." A surprised look crossed her face. "What, you think you're the only ones who manage on your own?" She shook her head. They walked the rest of their way in silence and Kathy went inside. Shadow stood on the sidewalk a moment more.

'I got a job,' she'd said. But where?

--

--

_It was the dream again. The same dream. The cage, the light, the flash, the stifling blackness..._

Kathalita jolted awake and sighed first in relief, then in frustration. Though she was happy to be free of the nightmare before it got too unbearable, the noise that had woken her was coming from downstairs, and it sounded like Evie was throwing another of her crazy parties.

_We haven't even been here four days and she's already..._ The girl grabbed a wooden pole she kept nearby for just such occasions and thumped the floor with it. "EVIE, KEEP IT DOWN!" The racket only got louder and she slammed the shaft into the floor as hard as she could. "EVELYN! SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO MAINTAIN THEIR YOUTH THROUGH REST! SHATAP!" When the noise continued, she sprung out of bed in fury and dashed to the top of the stairs only to freeze in horror at the sound of her friend's screams.

_Demon hunters..._

--

--

Shadow was already well a part of the fray by the time Kathy showed up. She flew through the air and kicked one in the temple, knocking him out instantly before turning on two more, wielding a long wooden shaft as a weapon.

There were twelve hunters. Shadow felled two, Kelsey four, Kathy another four. Evie was cornered by the remaining two and was obviously not trained to protect herself, and a sword plunged through her gut before the hunters ran like cowards.

"EVIE!" the girls screamed and ran to their friend's side as she fell to the floor.

"It's alright," she croaked. "It's alright..."

"Evie..." they murmured in shock.

"I know I can stop the pain if I will it all away..." the cat demon chanted, her voice growing weaker with every word. "I know I can stop the pain..."

--

--

A week had passed since Evie's death. Kathy and Kelsey had only mourned in private, unwilling to give Shadow the satisfaction of their pain. They were sitting in the mall at midnight, across from each other with milkshakes sitting unsipped in front of them.

"Guess it's just you and me now," gray eyes observed.

"Yeah," amethyst chips agreed.

"Sisters to the end," hollow voice vowed.

"How else?" tapping claws questioned.

They knew Shadow was skateboarding around the deserted building, and he returned every once in a while because he wasn't sure that they were as okay as they kept assuring him. Funny how he hardly knew them, but was looking out for them because he knew no one else would but themselves.

--

--

And he didn't trust them to look out for themselves at this point. He had seen the two of them at the quiet funeral and knew they had lost a sister- maybe not in blood, but in spirit. He mused as his long hair blew behind him, remembering how they had fought.

They were specially trained fighters. But who had trained them and where? Kathy had sustained a big bruise in her side that would be slow-healing, but hadn't let him near it. In fact, she had been avoiding him period, as if she were too wary of him to be close.

He was beginning to distrust her. She seemed nice enough- like a snapping turtle. And trusting enough- like a beaten mustang. He just couldn't see what she was under the cloaking spell, and it was killing him.

He caught movement up ahead and brought his board to a quick stop. The shadows rustled and three men stepped from the darkness. Shadow turned tail and raced back to the girls full speed.

--

--

Kathy stood when he came back gasping for breath.

"What's up?" she asked, startled to see him flustered.

"We've got company," he managed. "Get your duel disk." She slipped it on her arm and walked to stand next to him, peering into the shadows from whence he had fled. She noticed he carried a Chaos Dueldisk, and knew he wouldn't recognize hers- it was one of a kind. Lightweight titanium instead of bulky plastic and steel, it curved even smoother than the Chaos model managed.

Three figures walked beside each other out of the shadows. Two were roughly the same height, the third a few inches shorter. They all had dark, distrusting eyes and thin bodies. One of the tall ones had metallic golden skin and white hair that sprouted upward, defying gravity. The other had white skin and matching hair that reached his waist. The short one had pale skin as well, but his multicolored hair resembled a hedgehog's spikes.

"We heard there were duelists of high caliber living here," Yami Bakura called across the space that separated them.

"We're here," Kathy called back coolly, gray eyes unperturbed.

"We came to duel," Yami Yugi said. "But we were told there were three."

"The third is dead," her voice cracked on the fourth word.

"A shame," he offered.

"Well, Bakura and I will challenge you anyway to a tag-team duel, to see if you're really as good as they say." Yami Marik's voice made the blonde hair on the back of her neck and arms stand on end, but Kathy wouldn't let him see.

"I'm in," she replied.

"Let's do this," Shadow agreed.

"It's time to duel!" Marik screamed, activating his Dueldisk.

--

--

I was efficiently keeping Bakura busy, draining his lifepoints every turn. However, that left Marik up to Kathy. She was doing a good job of wiping his tributes off the field, but she just couldn't get to his lifepoints.

And then he activated Scapegoat.

His next turn he summoned Ra, but it was in Sphere Mode. The laughter was giving her goose bumps, but she wouldn't let him see how scared she was. A good soldier.

"You have been a brave fighter, but now it is time to end this duel!" He spread his arms to the creature above him and began: _"Great Beast of the sky, please hear my cry..."_

His main opponent froze, still trying to calculate a way out.

"_Transform thyself from orb of light and bring me victory in this fight..."_

I crunched the numbers as well. It wouldn't take him long to clear the field of her attack position monster.

"_Envelop the desert with your glow and cast your rage upon my foe..."_

But in another turn I'd be there to aid her, and we could bring him down together.

"_Unlock your powers from deep within so that together we may win..."_

I looked at the sphere now, knowing I might not ever see Ra transform in person again.

"_Appear in this Shadow Game as I call your name..."_

Kathy seemed to have the same idea and was now gazing at the dragon with rapt attention.

"_Winged Dragon of Ra!"_

The wings of the creature opened and it's legs swung free. The beaklike jaw dropped and a ear-splitting screech echoed through the mall. A fireball reflected in Kathy's eyes as it wiped out her Guardian Iantos and damaged her lifepoints, but she wasn't through yet.

Bakura, on the other hand, was. My stall-and-burn deck had all but destroyed him already, and he was nowhere near completing the Destiny Board. He was out of the duel the instant after Marik's turn, so I turned my attention to Ra, and the master turned his attention to me.

Kathy's turn. "No monsters," I heard her swear softly in Latin. "I will place one card face down and end my turn," she declared.

"For some reason, you'll get the second chance you need so badly to recover," Marik laughed darkly. "I will transfer all but one of my lifepoints to Ra, for a grand total of 5999 attack." The thin form fused with the dragon and he laughed more evilly still. "Now, my creature, take out Apprentice Magician and remove the staller from our game!"

The world moved in slow motion as gold scales and red eyes fixed on my monster, still in attack mode. My lifepoints would be wiped out, and Kathy needed more than one turn to get back on her feet with Ra staring her in the face. We'd lost.

The fireball curled in the back of Ra's throat and I was frozen in place.

"Not so fast, Marik!" A familiar voice called from my left. I turned. Kathy looked calm, sure, victorious even.

"You forgot all about my facedown card. Reveal trap!" the hologram turned face-up. "Shift!"

"Magic and Traps don't apply to God cards, fool!"

"This card might be too common for you to associate with, so I'll explain. Shift doesn't effect your monster, it affects the attack itself, switching it to any other target on our side of the field." But all my monsters were in attack mode! "Ra!" she called. "Take me instead!"

My jaw must have hit the floor. I knew Bakura's and the Pharaoh's did. Kelsey was watching nonchalantly.

Marik's monster wheeled and blasted her directly, throwing her back hard against a wall. She was out of the duel, but it was over.

"Marik!" I called up to him. "My monsters' effects all kick in at the end of your turn, destroying your remaining lifepoint several times over."

We'd won. The holograms faded and I turned to my partner, hurrying to see if she was okay- she hadn't moved since Marik's last turn. The Yamis came as well, worried of a major injury.

She shook her head and held it. I reached out to see the damage, but she recoiled from me and flinched. "Don't touch me," she growled.

"Are you alright?" Yami Yugi asked, genuinely concerned.

"The world's spinning," she replied, her words slurring. "The back of my head hurts..." Bakura helped her to her feet.

"You just fought one hell of a fight," he complimented.

"Thanks, but it was Shadow that whooped your asses into next Tuesday."

"It has never taken me so long to summon Ra," Marik corrected. "I don't care what you say, you have to come to our tournament."

"Tournament?" I asked.

"Yes, we're staying in Hell, challenging all the toughest trainers around to come for a tournament. We heard about you there and came to Nowhere for a challenge. Guess we got more than we'd bargained for," Marik laughed more good-naturedly this time.

I chuckled. We lived in Nowhere, Texas. Literally, that's the name of the town. Our nearest neighbors were Heaven and Hell, larger metropoli that lived up to their names.

"Maybe when I can walk in a straight line..." Kathy suggested and we headed home, laughing our arses off the whole way. The girl seemed to recover as we walked, and laughed with the Yamis. Relief washed over me to see her smiling like nothing had happened, at peace- but I couldn't figure out why. I still didn't trust her. After all, what was she?

--

--

--

Redwingblackbird: End part 1. That was the modified version of all the original I had. From here on out it's my memory or my mind coming up with what happened.

Megalord: out of the cast You changed the shit out of this thing, didn't cha?

Redwing: Yeah, but it makes SENSE now.

Megalord: Er, no. It doesn't.

Redwing: BUT IT WILL! ONWARD!

Kathy: It makes MUCH more sense than the other, it was just unbelievable how quickly we were attracted to each other.

Shadow: Speak for yourself. hugs

--

--

--

A month had passed since the move when the full moon rose. Kathy sat on her roof, gazing up, unable to sleep as usual, letting the moonbeams soak into her skin. A movement in the shadows of the street caught her eye and she turned slowly, not letting it know it had caught her attention. She blinked in confusion- what were Shadow and his brother doing running off like that?

Kelsey joined her a moment later. "You coming or what?"

They followed cautiously, silently, undetected, to a wide field miles from town, surrounded by dense forest on every side. Kathy jumped into a tree to get a better look when the unthinkable happened.

Torch, in the moon's light, convulsed as one who is becoming a werewolf would, but instead of fur, he grew scales. His neck lengthened and his face stretched. Hair became mane, fingers became claws, a red tail writhed as the creature roared.

_Dragon. _The girl froze. _Shadow?_ Her eyes darted over. The age difference was obvious- the older brother was leaner, as though he had grown out of his baby fat already. The five horns on his head- three on the forehead, two on the corners of the jaw- were more pronounced and gleamed silver against his ultraviolet scales. _No. It's an illusion._ But he had his eyes...

"We have an audience," the red monster cackled before a massive fireball launched from his jaws straight toward them. Paralyzed with fear, Kathy barely managed to throw up her arms as a defense before Shadow intervened, swatting the flame up into the air with his tail as it imploded.

Slowly she opened her eyes and the adrenaline in her system jumped another three notches. In panic, she had dropped the cloaking spell, reverting to her true form.

--

--

Every full moon Torch lost his mind to the dragonrage, and now the girls knew his secret. Standing between the two onlookers and his crazed brother, he looked back.

"Are you alright?" escaped him before he saw her- gray eyes wide in terror, arms still crossed in front of her curled legs. But what sent him reeling were the wings that spread from her back and were tucked around her protectively- bird's wings, stormcloud gray. Another fireball came and he caught it in his horns, but when he looked back she was gone.

--

--

Kathy flew sideways, dodging trees, mind blank as stone. She watched without recognition as the two dragons clashed. Once, they stood on their hind legs in a wrestling match the younger won. Shadow landed nearby, crashing and lying still.

--

--

Torch had gotten the best of me. I thought I was dead. The world spun and I tried to steady it.

A hand rested on my nose. "You can't give up," a familiar voice called. "You can get bashed up much worse that this." I rolled back onto my feet and turned to face my brother. I threw a ball of purple fire and he coughed one of red. They collided and fire exploded everywhere. I opened my wings an instant too late, and a jet whizzed past.

One of her wings caught fire badly, and she screamed as a tortured eagle would, crumpling in pain. Red edged my vision and I whirled in blind rage. Torch was unconscious in a minute, head struck against the ground. I turned again to see Kelsey over her friend, stamping the remnants of the flames out with dirt. I transformed back into my human form and raced over, falling to my knees beside them.

I rested my hands on her wing and healed it- as good as new. A sigh of relief escaped me as I gathered Kathy in my arms and started home. Kelsey followed right behind, not saying a word and glaring at me the whole way. Once home, I laid the girl down on the sofa and went up to the roof, needing time to think.

Why had it surprised me so much, her true form? Hadn't I been curious all this time? And why had my first response been to protect her? That last sent me in circles for quite a while and I was just dismissing it as primitive instinct (protect the female) when I sensed something behind me and turned. She stood there with her head just out of the hatch to the roof looking dazed and confused.

"Er, is this your roof? I'll just be going now..." she headed back down and my words rushed a little on the response.

"No! Please stay, I want to talk to you." She paused, then climbed back up the ladder and sat next to me.

"Why did you heal me?" she asked, gingerly flexing the wing in question.

"You were in pain," I answered, voice softer than I'd meant it to be. "I don't like to see people in pain, especially when it's my fault."

"But it wasn't your fault, I was standing in harm's way."

"I could have protected you."

"I don't need your protection." I was unable to stop myself from turning quickly, her voice was so sharp. "Do you not understand what you've done?" her gray eyes narrowed as if focusing on her point. "Where I come from, there are few who can heal. Those who can don't go around healing everyone in sight, especially people like me."

"Avians."

She turned, the scowl on her face deepening. "That's right, half-birds." I realized only then that I'd struck a nerve. "That kind of intimacy doesn't come easily to people like me. Having another person's magic in your system..." she shuddered. "It's just messed up. Besides, now I owe you a life debt. My wings wouldn't have healed up so perfectly on their own."

"You don't owe me anything, I got you hurt!"

"No, I do because I went out onto the battlefield!"

"Why'd you come after me then, when I fell?"

She looked away, color creeping into her face. "I don't know. The adrenaline was so high in my system that I wasn't in full control of myself." We sat in silence. Finally, she spoke again. "You aren't... repulsed... by this form?" she asked, looking into her palms as though they held an answer.

"No," I answered softer than I'd meant to. "Not at all..."

"But..." I struggled to hear. "I'm a monster..." A short laugh escaped me and she looked over out of her reverie, curious. I looked away out of reflex.

"Au contraire." One hand ran over the wing beside me, which tensed under my touch. "I can't find anything monstrous about you." The wing shrugged away from me and she seemed to ignore that it'd happened.

"I'm of both earth and sky, yet I belong fully to neither. You are all one creature and have no idea how easy you have it." As she ranted, she began to yank burnt feathers out of her injured wing and let them fall to the ground below, where they disintegrated almost instantly.

"Not quite," I responded, sliding into my demi form. Her gray eyes widened as she saw the pointed ears and draconic wings and tail, and the full extent of my elven features came from hiding. "I _can_ be all one thing, but this is what I truly am: half dragon, half elf. A mutt to both and truly accepted by neither."

The blush reddened on her face and she looked quickly away. "It's late," she allowed at last. "Kelsey probably thinks I'm dead or you raped me or something. Of course, she'd probably think the latter'd do me good..." The gray wings stretched, even with the huge patch of feathers missing.

"Didn't that hurt?" I asked, pointing to the carnage.

"Yeah. But if I didn't do it, the new ones would never grow in." With that, she jumped off the roof. She slowed her fall with her wings, but she couldn't properly fly across the street and down to her house. All the same, I watched until she was out of sight.

--

--

Ho. Ly. Shit.

He was gorgeous under the spell. The high elven cheekbones and fair skin turned his dark eyes into pools that I'd fallen into the moment he'd turned to me. I'd seen the deep purple scales of the wings and tail before, but hadn't realized they matched his eyes so perfectly. Didn't he know that with the moon behind him his hair seemed blacker than the sky itself? He must have. He was flirting, after all.

Watch yourself, Kathy. Don't get attached, don't even consider crushing.

_He said he couldn't see the monster in me..._

The burnt feathers on the back of your wing still need to be taken out. Do that tomorrow.

_Purple eyes..._

_How did I fall asleep? _Kathy asked herself in the dream world before darkness swallowed her surroundings.

_A pair of all-too-familiar amethyst eyes and all-too-familiar words in a voice that brought back horrid memories._

"_Pharai, humnat nintas."_

--

--

_What's happening?_ Shadow asked himself as he floated in a black void. _I was fast asleep not a few seconds ago, and now I feel out of my body altogether and unable to find it. _

Gravity slowly bid him to stand instead of float, though he couldn't see what he stood on. Looking ahead, he saw Kathy. _Perhaps she knows what's going on._ Suddenly, a pair of familiar Egyptian eyes opened from the gloom, though their owner remained hidden.

"_Pharai, humnat nintas."_ The figure said and a mirror appeared. Kathy's face was full of terror, but she walked through the glass all the same. Shadow followed, unable to believe what was happening. On the other side, the girl's appearance had changed dramatically. In place of her t-shirt and jeans she wore a golden gown, and her skin was bronzed as though she lived outside every waking moment. Her eyes were closed as angel statues' often are in patient prayer, and golden chains hung limply around her. A man with black and red spiked hair stood behind her and bent to whisper at her throat:

"_Pharai, humnat nintas."_

"_Never."_ The word rang clear and true and the chains jumped to life, binding her fast.

"_You will submit to me. You belong to me. One day I will have you even if I have to force you."_

"_I will sooner die."_ Her eyes opened to challenge her captor, narrow slivers of silver fury.

"_That can be arranged,"_ he threatened.

"_But then you would lose your prize,"_ she reasoned. _"And you don't like to lose."_ The chains became lightning and she screamed in pain before a mirror opened beneath her and she fell through, Shadow on her heels.

Or, rather, wings, as it were. The portal dropped them from a dizzying height over a forest and as Shadow spread his wings to help himself, he saw Kathy ahead of him. Mirrors must be transitions between dimensions, Shadow realized. So with every mirror comes a new world, a new scene.

Only in this scene, the avian's wings were broken. She was back in her normal clothes, but she was tumbling out of the sky faster than Shadow would have thought possible. He dove after her and somehow caught her before she hit the tree line.

"_Are you alright?"_ he asked.

"_Yes,"_ she whispered.

"_Do you know what's going on? I mean the void and the capture and the mirrors have me confused as all-"_ she put a finger to his lips.

"_It's a dream, Kage. It started off horribly, but... It's alright now..."_ the avian's head tucked against his chest and his heart stopped for a moment before beating wildly out of control. Delusional, he thought. Lost her mind from the pain.

Suddenly he woke, bolting to his feet as sunlight streamed through the windows of his room. _What happened?_ He wondered, sitting again. _How could I have been awake while I was sleeping?_

A dream, she had said. _A dream? I've never dreamt before..._

--

--

The next two nights similar escapades happened and Shadow became more used to the dreamworld. He saw that with each mirror came a new world, and each new world changed them to fit in perfectly.

Then suddenly the dreams stopped and he was left to his thoughts- after he'd healed her, a part of his power must have remained in her body, as she had mentioned before. Then he was pulled into her subconscious through that.

He held his head in his hands. This was so terribly confusing.

It was later that day that it suddenly occurred to him.

"Kelsey, where does Kathy work?"

The other half-dragon shrugged. "I can take you there tonight so you can see for yourself, if you want."

And so the plans were made. Kels lead him to a coffee shop in Heaven called Spill the Beans, that also served ice cream and old-fashioned fountain drinks. It was a family friendly place, and they got there around eight in the evening. The owner, a little man with thinning hair and a pointed beak on his wan face, came up on a stage that was fitted against the back wall.

"How's everyone doing tonight?" he asked, and the audience answered with more vigor than Shadow had expected. "Good, good. Well, I'll go ahead and hand the mike over to Leo. Just remember that if you want to request a song, the cards are on your tables."

The mike was indeed handed over to an older teen who stood nearly six feet tall, including his combat boots. He was dressed all in denim, but the inside of his jacket was lined with faux fur that jumped out of the upturned collar like a lion's mane. His shoulder-length hair matched the brown eyes that gazed out at the floor. "Hello Heaven Texas!" he called. The crowd howled back. "It's Friday night! Guess who's here!"

The floor began to chant, "Cloud! Cloud! Cloud! Cloud!" And a slightly shorter teen with all the years of the former came onstage, wreathed in a spotlight. His long black trench coat almost hid the black bass guitar strapped across his chest, and it was only then that Shadow noticed Leo's guitar as well. A live band?

Again, the chant. "Napoleon! Napoleon!" This one appeared younger, but was taller. He had bright orange hair that sat in curls atop his zitty, pockmarked face. Bright blue eyes gazed out of rectangular glasses with bronze rims as he took his seat behind his drum set.

A final time: "Raven! Raven! Raven!" This time a girl walked onstage. Her gray eyes were lined thickly in black that matched her almost-shoulder-length hair. Her shoulders and midriff were bare, left so by her jet black tube top and skirt. She wore knee-length striped stockings in black and white and black platforms. She walked confidently into her circle of four keyboards and took a ready position, fingers hovering expectantly.

Now Leo turned back to the mike. "Alright, alright. We have a request right off the bat guys." The band dove into a cover of Nickelback's "Hero", Leo and Cloud sharing the vocals. Girls screamed and fainted nearer to the stage, and Shadow looked around uninterestedly.

"You said she works here," he said, the statement demanding an answer.

"She does." Kelsey's eyebrows were raised as if in questioning. "How can you not see her?"

"She's not here."

Kelsey's mouth became a thin line and she grabbed a blue card from the middle of the table and scribbled something on it, handing it and a five dollar bill to a passing waitress. The Used's "Liar Liar" came and went, followed by "I've got friends in low places" by Garth Brooks. Then Leo was handed the little blue card and he gave it a look before handing it to Raven.

"Well would you look at that, they want you to sing, Raven." The crowd began to chant. "Take it easy, guys, this one's all her."

A simple piano melody passed under Shadow's subconcious as he checked over all the faces- the soda jerk, the waitresses, the janitors...

"_I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me..."_ the dragon jumped about a mile in the air. _"Forgive me my weakness, but I don't know why,"_ he turned and looked at the girl in the spotlight more closely. _"Without you, it's hard to survive."_ How had he not recognized her? It was definitely her face, the gray eyes set on high cheekbones. Her already pale skin seemed white as porcelain from the contrast to her outfit.

He was spellbound at the sound of her voice and felt a twinge in his chest. The rest of the room fell away and it was as though she was playing for him and him alone. The longer he looked at her, the more he saw things he hadn't allowed himself to notice before, or perhaps she was the one who was hiding. What stunned him the most, though, was the tattoo on her right shoulder: a dragon whose tail curled down her bicep and whose head rested on her collarbone.

The song ended and he was released and he was suddenly very aware of Kelsey's snickering. "It's not just you. Every time she sings that way, every guy in the room goes to Pluto."

"What's with the tat?"

"Henna. She has her makeup artist do a new one every week. It wears out of her skin after a few days. Mao Mao really outdid herself, huh?"

"Yeah," he agreed absentmindedly. "Why do they call her Raven?"

"Because that magic only works when she's singing something sad. They're all great musicians, and she can sing, but her dark powers are most noted when she feels what she says, and generally it's something depressing."

--

--

"Great job," Cloud said, ruffling my hair as we went offstage. "Long night, huh?"

"Yeah," I agreed. "But it was fun."

"I can't wait to go home," Leo whined, as usual. I smiled, wondering if his fangirls would love him so much if they knew he was such a lazy arse.

"Rae," Cloud said before I got into my dressing room. I turned in the doorway. "You get the Magic Mike next week. Know what you wanna sing yet?"

I shrugged. "Do I ever?" Another noogie at his perfectly-shaped hands attacked me.

"Well, Napoleon gets it the next week after you, so keep that in mind, kay?"

"Alright, alright!" I laughed, trying to get free. "Come on, you know the black doesn't come out of my hair all that well! Lemme go!"

"You should just dye it red. Our little Irish Raven." Then he gave me a gentle shove into my room and I shot a fake glare at him before shutting the door.

Geez. Older brotherly figures...

--

--

I couldn't get the image out of my head- the sweep of her fingers, so sure of themselves across the keys. Her strange gray eyes, half closed as she sang from the depths of her soul.

I rolled onto my left side, trying to leave the image behind, but was left with my own thoughts instead. The longer I'd looked...

Right side. Homework I hadn't done, chores that needed doing, things at the shop to be handled tomorrow.

On my back. The image again.

Left side. Finally quiet and sleep begin to find me, but not fast enough. The longer I looked, I realized, the more I saw her. It was like seeing her for the first time.

The more I saw her as a girl.

_How'd I end up in here again?_ I thought frantically._ A scream. I ran toward it and found her chained to a dungeon wall, her same captor with the same demand: "Pharai, humnat nintas."_

"_I will sooner die!" she repeated. Another shock was delivered to her through the chains and she screamed again. She hung her head, sweat beading her hair as it fell before her face. "My brothers and sisters," she murmured. "Help me." Then he raised to cry to the darkness spread above her. "HELP ME!" Six birds dove from the dark and landed before her in a defensive formation: in the lead, a phoenix, beside him, a thunderbird. Then a tawny owl and a kingfisher. Finally, two swans: one white, the other black. Each glowed with a vibrant color that, when it touched the aggressor, drove him back. _

_But the birds soon disappeared and I was falling once again out of the sky. This time, however, the girl's wings were fine, and she hovered nearby, waiting for me to regain my balance._

I jolted awake and sat up in bed, cold sweat sticking to my body. Another of her dreams. But I hadn't touched her with my magic for weeks... wait- she had touched me with hers.

I ran my fingers through my newly-cut, shaggy hair. This was becoming a real problem.

I sat for a long time, unable to free my ears from her screams of agony.

--

--

Why? And how?

Why couldn't Yami leave me alone? I'd broken up with him long ago.

And how could he remember what he forced us to be? I'd wiped his memory with a Shadow Game.

I sighed and glanced at the address Kels had given me. She swore it was the best weapon shack in Heaven. I wasn't so sure, but my old knife had shattered and I might as well give it a shot.

I walked in and was mystified. The walls were covered in swords, axes, pikes, bows, and shields. At the far end of the shop was a glass case in which smaller weapons hid, and the owner looked up from his book.

"Ah, Kathy." I froze. Shadow? "What an unexpected surprise."

"That's usually how surprises go."

"What can I help you with, now that my secret's out?"

"You OWN this place?" I asked as I walked toward him behind the counter.

"Yep. What'cha looking for?"

"Uh..." I shut my eyes and reprimanded myself: how could I forget? "A concealable, lightweight, six-inch blade."

His beautiful eyes looked at me hard. "Paranoid by the dream?" I blushed. I'd heard of dream walkers, but I hadn't expected him to be one. And I thought he wasn't real, but a figment of my imagination- I always knew when Yami was slinking in my subconcious.

"The dream was brought about by a real threat."

Now his expression hardened into concern and anger. My heart flipped over and trembled in fear all at once.

"Who is threatening you, and what does it mean?" I knew what he meant, I knew what he wanted to know. I hardly knew it was my voice telling him:

"It is Arabic for 'Queen of Pharaoh, accept your destiny'. My stalker is-" Just then, the door opened behind me and the bell rang. And in stepped my worst nightmare.

"There's my little songbird." I tensed up, resisting his mental attacks with every molecule in my body. He snaked an arm around my waist and I recoiled from the bastard's touch. Anger sparked in his violet eyes, but he smiled at Shadow. "What were we talking about?"

_Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived._

"Oh, nothing."

"Nothing at all."

"I was just about to invite Shadow to my show Friday night. I have the Magic Mike and all."

"Oh, goody. I think I'll come too." Fire and lightning cackled in the back of my throat, but I resisted the urge to just kill him there. "Shouldn't we be going, my dove?"

"Go on," I replied icily. "You'll catch up eventually." He scowled and stalked off, and when I turned back to Shadow, he had a dagger in his hand.

"On the house," he said, handing it to me carefully. He had matched my description perfectly, and on the thin carbonized-steel blade was etched a tiny dragon. When he caught my glance, he explained, "Smith's mark."

"Thanks."

He smiled. "Just sing and we'll call it even." The blush on my face darkened and I ducked my head.

"Don't try to hide it," he chastised gently, "you're cute when you're flustered." That only made the blush worse.

"You and Cloud would get right along..." he laughed.

"Say, could I ask you for a favor?"

"Depends, what's the favor?"

"Well, I have a day once a month where I wheel my whetstone outside and sharpen everyone's stuff for free. However, while I'm doing that, the store goes unmanned, so could you watch it for me Saturday?"

"I have another show Saturday night."

"That's alright, I usually close up around 5:30 anyway." I sensed another motive and tried to discern it from his face. He sighed and looked at me sadly. "And you'll be safe here, away from him."

My heart fluttered. "Alright, I'll be here."

--

--

Friday came fast, and I found myself in the audience again, waiting anxiously for the show to begin. Leo came first, then Cloud, then Napoleon, then Kathy (excuse me- Raven). She was dressed in red tonight, from her Chucks to her goggles perched in her spray-painted hair.

She had the Magic Mike, which meant she chose the songs they sang in between requests- it passed between all 5 of the crew (their sound man, Sparks, was backstage, and got his chance too), switching hands every week. They opened with Weird Al's "Another One Rides the Bus" before they got swamped with the little blue request tickets.

About an hour and a half in, Leo had a ticket in his hand and a shadow passed over his face. He turned and walked over to Raven, handing it to her. She read it and her expression hardened. She nodded to Leo, who went back to the microphone. "Sorry bout that, folks. This song's been dedicated to Raven."

I had no idea what the song was, though later I would be told it was by Nightwish. The guys' chorus had me searching the crowd for the only bastard I knew would choose such a song:

"_I wish I had an angel for one moment of love, I wish I had your angel, your Virgin Mary, undone; I'm in love with my lust, burning angel wings to dust; I wish I had your angel tonight."_

Kathy only had one line, and she sang it with such ferocity her words might have burned a hole through the microphone: _"Old loves, they die hard- old lies, they die harder."_

"_Greatest thrill, not to kill, but to have the prize of the night..." _

There. In the corner sat Yami, staring intently at her. I felt a growl rise in the back of my throat. The song ended, and Kathy took a deep breath before beginning one of her choice. Every word was a weapon again, and each resounded in my ears though I knew they were meant for the Pharaoh. The song of choice was "Angels" by Within Temptation, and Yami frowned only after the tenth or eleventh line:

"_I see the angels, I'll lead them to your door- There's no escape, now, no mercy no more..."_ His scowl deepened as he stood and left, and I looked back up to the girl. She seemed frightened now, but desperate to hide that fear.

I picked up a blue card from the center of the table.

--

--

Leo walked up to me again, another card in his hand, his face unreadable. I read the scrap of paper and froze. A blush crept up to my face as I read:

I wish I was singing this instead of Leo, because I'd mean every word.

I smiled up at Leo and nodded, and he went back. "Another one for Raven. Geez, girl, so many admirers..."

"Oh, and you're one to talk," I teased back before starting Stephen Speaks' "Out of my League".

"_It's her hair and her eyes today,"_ he began, _"That just simply take me away..."_ I sent my thoughts out with the music, trying to catch who had requested this for me. _"And the feeling that I'm falling further in love makes me shiver, but in a good way..."_ My heart beat madly when I received an answer, but passed it off as wishful thinking: not Shadow. _"All the times I have sat and stared as she thoughtfully thumbs through her hair..."_ I closed my eyes and floated away on the song I loved so much, fingers on autopilot over the keys.

"_Cause I love her with all that I am, and my voice shakes along with my hands, cause it's frightening to be swimming in this strange sea, but I'd rather be here than on land. Yes she's all that I see and she's all that I need and I'm out of my league once again..."_

After the show, I was walking back to my dressing room when Napoleon stopped me.

"Are you okay?" he seemed genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, why?"

"Cause during that one song you were crying. The love song sent to you." I looked down. It had been one tear. "I'd hate my sis to be sad." I had to laugh. Napoleon could be such a golden retriever sometimes.

"Naw, I'm good. Just wishing one guy had been the one to send it, and it probably wasn't him."

"Crushing much?"

"Badly."

"Okay then. Just checking. Night."

--

--

I watched her walk in that morning, a bit worried. She seemed unperturbed, if a bit tired. _That's good, right?_ I demanded of myself. _She's not freaked out... or she doesn't know it was you._

"Morning," she greeted. "Need help with the stone?"

"Nope," I smiled. "I've got it."

"Alright." She stood behind the counter and observed her surroundings. She clearly had an eye for weaponry, the strange gray eyes silently appraising the better pieces.

I wheeled the stone outside and started it's spin. Before long, many of my loyal customers came with their knives, katanas, kunai, and shuriken. Though the majority of them had merely bought them for show, they were excellent pieces, and the owners wanted them in top condition. Occasionally I glanced inside the window to check on Kathy. She had gotten her energy back and was doing a great job. I smiled and went back to my sharpening.

--

--

A girl walked in and I wondered why she of all people on the Creator's green Earth was in a weapon shop.

Her blonde hair was straight and shoulder-length. Her skin was perfectly tan without any blemishes. Her blue eyes glared at me from their perch on scary-high cheekbones. She was tall and curvy and dressed to kill with a low neckline and tiny skirt, balancing delicately on stiletto heels.

"Can I help you?" I greeted with a smile.

"Don't give me that. I see what you're trying to do."

"Excuse me?" I attempted to remain civil.

"Shadow. The guy who owns this place. He's mine, you hear? You're trying to get on his good side, working for him, but I see you're just some desperate bitch who's trying to steal my man." I stammered for a moment, trying to get my head back on my shoulders. "Look at you. You're not attractive at all and you know it. You've resorted to stealing other girls' men. Well I'll tell you something, hon." She leaned in close and I wanted to recoil in absolute horror from the face. "Girls like you have only one purpose: exist so guys can appreciate true beauty when they see it- they want girls like me, not like you."

With that, she whirled on her atom-thin heel and walked out the door, shuffling in her purse for something. She found a small knife and handed it to Shadow outside.

No one else was in the store, and I slipped into my own little world. I knew I was gazing like a lost puppy, but he was so perfect I couldn't help myself. He was kind to me as well, a true prince charming. I slapped myself to snap out of it. This attraction was getting way out of hand. _Idiot,_ I chastised. _She's right, you know. About your purpose in life, anyway._

--

--

I really saw nothing at all appealing about Victoria, though I heard other guys claim jealousy of me for her attention. I swallowed my pride and sharpened the pocketknife she never used- I knew for a fact she wore it down on rocks the night before my sharpening days because of the chips on the blade length- and remained unaffected by the cleavage she was promoting right by my left ear.

"All done," I said, handing it back. She pouted a little.

"Who's your helper, Shadow?"

"A friend. A good friend."

"A girlfriend?"

I burst out laughing. "No, no. She'd deny that completely, even if it were true."

"Listen here, Shadow," her voice dripped acid instead of words. "You must be absolutely blind to not see how I feel for you and how I feel about _her_."

"That really doesn't bother me, Victoria," I replied calmly, "because your entire purpose, as far as my life is concerned, is to make me appreciate true beauty when I see it."

"She's not even remotely cute."

"I would hope you wouldn't think so."

--

--

When I watched her storm off in a huff with a red face and tears streaming out of her over-outlined eyes, it took a lot of self control to not have a little personal celebration.

It was almost time to run over to Spill the Beans, so I closed up shop and said goodbye to Shadow before hurrying off.

--

--

It was as though every time I saw her, she became more beautiful. That night she was in blue- a matching midnight shade for the long-sleeved shirt and bellbottoms of her choice. Egyptian-style blue eyeliner and glitter accented her eyes, and streaks of her hair had been turned blue.

The theme of the night was disco. She had gotten the guys dressed up in spandex, and all their sleeves widened and tattered as much as their bellbottoms.

The first time one of her chosen songs had the familiar trance in it was, surprisingly, Abba's "Take a Chance on me". I was, typically, spellbound:

"_You know that there's so much that I want to do, when I dream I'm alone with you it's magic..."_

I closed my eyes and let myself believe she was singing for me for a moment, that it wasn't an illusion. My heart and soul ached- was it really so impossible? Couldn't she love me in return?

The next song was a request, and I growled, recognizing it instantly. I could hear Atem in each of the Phantom's lines:

"_Sing once again with me, our strange duet. My power over you grows stronger yet. And though you turn from me to glance behind, the Phantom of the Opera is there, inside your mind."_

As Kathy sang, it was as though she was screaming for help, barely restraining that need in her voice. My gaze became daggers thrown across the room into the bastard. How could he? How dare he? I would make him pay. I rose to find reinforcements.

--

--

I must have looked really panicked, because after I had changed, the whole crew was waiting for me inches outside the door. I tried to assure them I was fine, but Sparks followed me out to the alley where I parked my bike (the bus stop was across town, and I had to get there somehow).

A silhouette stood in the only way out to the street and I knew it was just my luck he'd decide to stick around. I put my hand on Sparks' blonde, spiky head and looked down into his beady, near-translucent eyes.

"Run," I murmured. "He's not after you." I saw a glance of tears before he did as he was told, and then I turned back to my tormentor.

"I told you," the dark voice growled,. "that there would be no more running."

"Am I running?"

He approached me and I slipped into my ready position- right foot in front, knees bent, arms loose but up to protect my stomach and sides. He rushed forward and I slipped back before throwing my right leg up into his face. Momentum carried me around, left heel connecting well in the same spot. His head smacked into the brick wall to my left, but he recovered and stepped back.

"_I_ told _you_," I growled. "That there would be no more visits from you."

This time I attacked, dashing forward and grabbing his left wrist and pulling him to my right. My left hand popped the shoulder out of it's socket with a sickening snap. I used my strong lower body to my advantage, twisting it the other way entirely, knocking him off his feet. I spun, letting the speed run out of me. Now I stood between him and the opening to the street. He was down, but rising, and I had disabled his strong arm (lugging around a Duel Disk makes for a great workout).

A flinch later the arm was back in action. The resulting fight was so fast and furious I couldn't give you concrete details to save my life. But all it took was one bad landing from a missed kick and I was pinned in an instant.

I did a quick inventory: arms, pinned at the wrists; legs, locked at the ankles; wings, crushed between me and the wall; I had nothing to use, nothing up my sleeve (the knife was in my bag, abandoned to the side). _Dammit_, I thought before I began to panic. _No way out._

"You will learn," he murmured. "A queen always submits to her king." I struggled in earnest, hoping to find one of his holds weak- no luck. His eyes held true anger and his lips crushed mine. Pain exploded behind my eyes as my head smashed into the brick behind me, but I became as stone: cold and unyielding. When he pulled back to look back at me the anger had become full-out rage as he growled again:

"You will learn." His fingernails dug hard into my wrists and I flinched.

I began to scream insults at him in every language I knew: Arabic, Japanese, English, Elvish, and Draconic to name a few. In an attempt to silence me, Atem bit into my throat and I began to scream in earnest.

"Let her go." Yami paid no attention and my savior spoke again with greater force: "Let her go!"

Irate, the Pharaoh looked to the street, and I did the same in terror. Three forms were outlined by the streetlights. Yami spoke to the centermost.

"What, Shadow? Do you enjoy burning angel wings as well?" I flinched. Shadow hunched over slightly, his hackles up now.

"Release her this instant or so help me God there'll be nothing of you left to bury."

At this, my captor stepped back and I dashed forward, behind the protective line. The fires diminished as Shadow asked gently,

"Are you alright?"

I nodded. "I will be." His eyes smiled.

"Run," he said. "Find a safe place and stay there. I'll deal with him." I nodded, turned, and darted off.

--

--

I turned back to the underling, bloodlust humming in every cell, fiber and pore of my body. I had seen what he'd tried to force her into, and I wanted his head for it.

"You will pay for tormenting and harming her," I said, advancing. Bakura and Marik were flanking me, preventing any form of escape. Yami was backed into a corner before he began to beg for mercy.

"W-wait! I can be reasonable!"

"That time is past."

I stripped him of all his dark-aligned magics and each and every one of his memories. He screamed in pain before blacking out and I walked away, satisfied. He would darken our doorsteps no longer.

Back on the street, I found the scent I was looking for and followed it. I started at a walk, but soon I was worried enough to run. Here she cut through an alley; here she crossed the street a few times to dodge pursuers; and here... I stopped. The scent had disappeared on the edge of town and it took me a minute to realize she had taken to the air.

I followed. She kept at the tree line, avoiding sight, heading for home. Suddenly she stopped just outside Nowhere and hovered for awhile. There were no other scents, so she was alone. What was she thinking? She turned quickly, flying now instead toward the mountains and forest to our northeast. She gained altitude once out of foreseeable sight of humans, then dove into the forest below.

I smelled blood- her blood- and began to panic. But here among the trees she crossed and recrossed her path so many times deliberately that I finally dropped to the forest floor in defeat. I sat with my head in my hands, mind racing, needing to know what was happening. A thousand scenarios raced through my mind and just as I got up to run and try to find her again, motion in my peripheral vision drew my gaze.

A wolf ran to a nearby spot. It was jet black, but had pure white fur on it's chin, chest, mask, inner ears and belly. He looked left, then right, then straight at me, and came running right at me. I took a step back, but it stopped a few feet away. It's eyes were chips of the sky and they looked straight into mine. I sensed a strange power and felt myself fall helplessly into it's mind. There were no words there, but through his eyes (I knew then it was male) I could see Kathy, crushed under a fallen tree.

I snapped out of the trance. The wolf gently took my hand in his mouth and tugged.

"Do you want me to follow you?" it seemed like a stupid question only after it had been asked. The wolf ran off into the woods and I followed. Soon we arrived at the place I had been shown. I saw the blood spattered on Kathy's broken body, but I could also see her breathing. She was still alive!

My guide growled and I looked to the top of the tree. A white cloaked figure lounged there, waiting patiently for, it seemed, me.

"You."

The man pulled his hood back and smiled at me. His white hair was spiked into a single, flamelike spike atop his albino head. His pale blue eyes looked me up and down for a moment before he replied.

"Shadow."

"Hikari." A moment of silence passed.

"You have a strange affinity for this girl, my friend. At first I wondered why, but now I see. She has a spark of life that refuses to be put out, no matter the situation." One of his long clawed hands ran through her blood-caked hair and I growled as much as the spirit beside me. "What do you say, Shadow?" he asked, taking a fistful of that same hair. "Join with me and I will release her. I will even guarantee that she will be healed once Chaos is resurrected. Refuse me," he pulled hard, yanking her head back, inducing a horrible scream, "and I will kill her right here, right now."

If I thought I had been angry before, I was wrong. I lost all control over myself, changing into my dragon form. Hikari did the same: my doppelganger with white instead of purple and black. Our fight was lightning quick and brutal. Hikari took all the major damage, and after I had sunk my teeth into his neck, he teleported away. Coward.

I turned and tossed the tree away effortlessly. I dropped to the ground, changing again, this time into my true form. I eased Kathy onto her back and cradled her broken body gently. A small stream of my magic told me the extent of the damage. Tears stung my eyes and blurred my vision. My power was running low- I couldn't help her on my own. But who else could help? I bowed my head in despair.

Cyan light exploded behind my closed eyes and a surge of strength ran through me. Draconic power that fueled my own. A motherly voice murmured to the edge of my mind:

"_This is all I can do for you. Let it aid you."_

"Who are you?"

"_She will tell you, someday. Now hurry."_

I didn't need to be told twice. I turned the two of us into shadows and glided on other shadows until we reached my home. I carried her up the stairs and set her down on my bed and started to work.

--

--

Waking up was an interesting experience. I was fully aware that I was somehow indoors. Then, that it was not my home. After I opened my eyes, that it was not my room. Then, that I was in someone else's bed.

"Where am I?" I croaked.

Then the pain hit me. I moaned and felt movement by my right side and then Shadow was looking down at me.

"Thank God, you're awake." He sat down beside me, eyes full of relief. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

"What happened?" I managed. Moving hurt. For that matter, breathing hurt.

"You were running away when one of my enemies decided to drop a tree on you."

"Big tree?" He nodded.

"He was using you as a trap. He threatened to kill you if I didn't give myself up. I took him out instead and brought you here to heal you."

"Where is here?"

"My house. To be most specific, my room." Blood rushed to my face and I wished I could jump up and run away, but my legs felt like...

"Why do I hurt so badly?" His face grew dark.

"You were beaten up pretty drastically." My eyes demanded the extent of the damage and he sighed. "Both your arms are broken in two places. Your legs are broken in three. Most of your ribs broke, but I got some of them fixed up before I collapsed last night. Kathy..." his voice had the tone doctors used for bad news and my heart raced. "Your spine was undamaged because you folded your wings and they absorbed the shock. Almost every bone in both of them shattered completely." Tears started running down my face and I turned my head away, ashamed that he'd see me cry. "Kathy," he begged, cupping my face in his hand, "I'm going to do everything I can..."

"Will I fly again?" I demanded.

"I don't know," he whispered honestly. A silence passed between us.

"Why?" I asked finally. "Why would anyone do this?"

"Because of something I've been meaning to tell you," he admitted, "for what seems like the longest time." I looked back up at him and he tucked stray strands of my hair back behind my ear. His amethyst eyes looked into my gray ones and he whispered just loud enough for me to hear:

"I love you." The words hung in the air between us and I could see in his eyes that it was true. My heart nearly leapt out of my chest.

"Shadow," I whispered, but he gently set his fingers over my lips.

"Please, don't. Not yet. Wait until this is over at least, that would be less cruel." I kissed his fingertips.

"I wasn't about to reject you." Now he froze, eyes searching for a joke, but I hid nothing in mine. "I love you." A smile spread across his face and I never wanted to see it leave.

The rest of the day was spent, for his part, healing broken bones. He started with the rib cage, so at least I could breathe easy. He helped me drink some horrid-smelling broth at nighttime before he bid me a weary goodnight. I insisted on being moved to the couch so he could have his bed back, but he wouldn't budge on the subject, saying he was perfectly happy on the couch himself.

The next day, we decided to try healing a wing. He stretched out the right one and I bit my lower lip holding in a scream. He looked at me guiltily before he admitted to having no idea where to begin.

"Have you ever seen a raptor skeleton?" I asked. He nodded. "Did you study the arms at all?" He nodded again. "Alright. The four fingers of a raptor's hand turned into flight bones of birds." He nodded. "But you wouldn't know how to place the bones in the right spots, right?" He shook his head.

We had figured out by this point that as long as a fragment of his magic remained in my system (or vice versa), we could send images back and forth through each other's minds- all it required was contact. He gently set his hand on my wing.

"Show me." I closed my eyes and sent him a mental X-ray of how the bones were supposed to go. He nodded. "Got it."

Watching him was torture. He would run his hands over my wing, healing as he went. The going was slow. Many times he stopped altogether and was very still. If not for the black energy emanating from his hands, I would have thought he had given up.

Things continued this way for several days until I was all in one piece again. The pain still lingered, and Shadow asked me to stay and rest there one more night.

"Only if you'll let me move to the couch!" I insisted, trying to get up.

"No!" he retorted, pushing me back down.

"You're exhausted and it's been four days since you had a decent night's rest. Take the bed back!" He sighed.

"Compromise. We'll both sleep on this creaky old thing, alright?" A blush started to creep up on my face again. "Don't worry," he added. "I won't hurt you. I won't even touch you." I nodded.

"Deal."

It was the first peaceful night I'd had in a long time. My only dream was of floating in an endless blackness, a comforting blackness.

--

--

I lay awake for a long time, thinking.

_Do you enjoy burning angel wings, too?_

_No. I would never, could never, hurt her._

_I'm a monster._

_Impossible. Rodwen is an angel._ I rolled onto my side and looked at her sleeping face. Stroking her cheek, I wondered how she could think so little of herself. She murmured in her sleep, as I had found she often did:

"Kage..."

It wasn't always my name, sometimes she mumbled song names or gibberish, but my heart beat a little faster when it was me. Slowly, I fell asleep.

_Angel wings..._

When I woke up, something seemed wrong. It took me a moment to realize Rodwen was cuddled up in my arms and was using my chest as a pillow. Remembering her reaction to my suggestion the night before, I had to assume that this had happened by accident. All the same, I wasn't complaining. I shifted slightly to make us both more comfortable, she sighed happily, and I sighed happily.

--

--

He probably knew damn well I was awake.

At least part of the time. But I didn't want to end the moment, the instant of warmth between us- I had never felt more safe than I did that morning in his arms. I knew he wouldn't let any harm come to me, and that was an all new feeling for me.

That afternoon, we stood out in the field where I'd seen Torch transform. Shadow had told me on the way that he'd sent his brother back to the dragon home island- a little place the elementals had fixed up for them where they'd never be found. Apparently he was having trouble controlling his powers, and the elders there could help him.

Shadow nodded after a moment. "We're cloaked. You can fly as high and as wildly as you want, you can't be seen." I nodded back.

"Thanks for this."

"No problem. I just want to make sure I did the right thing."

I stretched, waking up the muscles that had fallen asleep during my four days of rest. I stretched my wings out to their full length, flexing each muscle in preparation. Nothing felt wrong, but you never knew sometimes.

I hopped on the balls of my feet once, twice before launching into the air with one powerful downstroke. I started off slowly, concentrating on finding any kinks in my flight. Finding none, I started simple maneuvers like gliding on updrafts and turning in varying degrees of sharpness. Finally, I darted around in loops and corkscrews, my laughter being carried away by the wind: I could fly. As well as I always had before!

By this time in the day it had started to rain- sweet summer rain. I flapped on over to the nearby mountaintop and stood there, letting the water run over me.

Kage landed beside me after a few minutes and enjoyed the rain as well, but something seemed to be bothering him.

"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned.

"Are you happy?"

I broke out in a grin. "How can I not be happy? I'm free, thanks to you."

His smile sent a wave of warmth through my chest. "Then I'm happy."

With that, he set his hands on my shoulders and pulled me closer. He gazed into my eyes as he hesitated, but then kissed me, his lips gentle and undemanding. My hands rested on his shoulders and his slipped down to my waist. His wings wrapped around me, shielding me from the rain, though both me and my clothes were already soaked through. I opened my eyes again when he pulled back, not letting go of me nor I of him.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-" I cut him off with a quick kiss.

"Don't apologize," I murmured. "You'll make me think you didn't mean it."

He smirked. "I meant it alright."

We lost track of time up there, sure of only one thing: that we were both madly, helplessly in love.

--

--

--

Megalord: God, it sounds like a bad chick flick.

Redwing: That's what you get for letting me finish it. Besides, I thought you'd be happy: Shadow got to totally kick ass!

Shadow: YEAH! thinks But it wasn't really manly, it was all for love.

Megalord: WHERE'S THE TESTOSTERONE?

Redwing: It got kicked with the vast majority of useless charries you put in the original of this thing.

Megalord: Hey! Most of the YuGiOh cast got kicked too, and they were YOUR idea.

Redwing: But I had to completely end YaKa. It was a pairing doomed from the start.

Kathy: Most people are saying the same for ShaKa.

Shadow: Now that's not fair. They don't know anything, now do they? cuddles

Redwing: Oh, yeah, and for those not in the know: 'Rodwen' is 'Kathy' in elvish, so it's Shadow's petname for her. And 'Kage' is Japanese for 'Shadow', so that's her petname for him.

Megalord: Why did we even look those up to begin with?

Redwing: Because Shadow's a mouthful to say in your sleep and Kathy's an unattractive name to write over and over and over again.

Megalord: Point.

Redwing: Well, I think I've completed all my mission objectives. I really wanted to finish this quickly, because there's a chance Megalord (and consequently Shadow) will be moving this summer. This was kind of a going away present (or maybe a good luck charm that'll get them to stay. Either way works!). Love you, you knucklehead. Hope you're alright with how I finished it off.


	2. Pure Form

Pharaohsservant: Okay, so I'm now writing random semi-depressing crap and actually writing in a character that we left in limbo for a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

**Redwingblackbird: Okay, so I'm now writing random semi-depressing crap and actually writing in a character that we left in limbo for a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time. And SURPRISE! These charecters are all mine (or used with permission between friends). Isn't that an improvement?**

**Kath: fast asleep on couch**

**Kels: drooling in sleep**

**Ev: drawing on Kage's face as he sleeps**

**Pharaohsservant: I feel real loved. starts writing**

Kath narrowed her eyes and looked to the ceiling. No, it couldn't be. She had to be mistaken. But there it was again, that tugging at the corner of her mind.

Suddenly she fell to her knees and screamed as a spiritual spear shot through her gut and twisted. Kels ran into the room, and, knowing what was going on, pressed a damp rag to Kath's forehead to slow the process down.

"He's here Kels."

"I know."

"He's close."

"I know."

"He won't fail this time."

Kels knew better than to answer and instead patted her friend's back.

Her lungs felt like they were burning into nothing, and white-hot daggers dug into her back and wings. Blood began to trickle slowly from her mouth and an avian scream escaped her lips. The element struggled to remain concious, but it was a failing battle, her brother was stronger than before. Than ever before.

The last thing she remembered before falling into darkness was Kage running into the room.

Voices started to float around her elusively in the gloom.

"_What happened?"_

"_That's for her to tell you, I'm surprised she hasn't by now."_

"_Kels..."_

"_Look, it's something you obviously don't need to know if she didn't tell you."_

An evil cackle resounded within her very soul, and she shivered.

"_**Sister, I'm back."**_

Kels sat on the floor, doing her best to ignore the hostile glances Kage kept throwing her between worried gazes at Kath, who was lying unconcious in his arms. The half-dragon was determined not to tell him what was going on- hell, she barely knew herself.

The unconcious sorceress squeezed her eyes tighter shut and groaned.

"You bastard..." she croaked, delerious. "This doesn't concern them, your fight is with me." Her body stiffened and began to tremble as her brother's malicious magical assault resumed. Throwing her head back, Kath declared clearly, "Let my people go, brother!" then fell limp and silent again.

After some time, Kath slowly opened her eyes. She sat up just as slowly and pulled away from Kage's embrace. She leaned against the bed behind her, crossed her right arm over herself, closed her eyes, and whispered, "It would be best if neither of you were here for this."

"Kathy, we won't abandon you," Kels replied cooly.

"I'm not asking you to. I'm asking for you to leave me to deal with this myself."

"But what if there's another attack?" her friend protested.

"Then you'll hear my screams, won't you?"

"Rodwen..." Kage whispered, bewildered and frightened.

"Please," the sorceress begged, "leave me."

Kels left, and Kage, though reluctant, did the same. Once she was sure they were out, Kath began her prayer.

"Great Creator, lend me the strength to summon my mentors for council in this time of need from any corner of heaven, hell, or earth. Lend to me the spirits of Phenist the Fire, Zia the Thunder, Rhem the Healer, Xor the Water, Ksherea the Ice, Luna the Light, and Sala the Darkness."

First came Zia, the wings from her back yellow and black, and her eyes lightning themselves.

Next, Xor, his eyes, wings, and hair all the same shade of deep blue. A thin, pale scar crossed his face, right between his eyes.

Then, Luna- frail and pale as the moon. Everything about her was white- her skin, wings, hair, dress- everything but her eyes, which were lapis lazuli blue- like a pure, true night sky.

Fourth, Phenist. Red-orange eyes frightened many, and his ripped muscles and short, red spikey hair didn't do much to help that. The wings that sprouted from his back started at red at the top, then blended through orange to yellow at the bottoms.

Next came Rhem, the healer, brown wings and eyes outdazzled by magenta hair.

Then Ksherea appeared. Her true form was much like Kath's at that time, but a long scar ran over her left eye.

Finally, materializing from darkness, came Sala. Kath felt a shiver of fear run through her- Sala's soul had to be seperated from her own when she was very young to prevent her from becoming purely evil. The half-heart necklace she wore was completed by the half Sala wore. Hers was clear glass, Sala's was black. If they were ever reunited... Kath flinched at the thought as her shadow with her red eyes, grey skin, black wings and hair appeared within the confines of her mind's Council Chamber.

The Circle of Eight was gathered.

"He's attacked again," Rhem said with grim certainty, placing his hand on his little sister's forehead. Instantly, all traces of her blood-brother's Dark magic vanished.

"Thank you," Kath murmered to her soul-brother and pulled the grey cloak her spirit wore closer to herself. "But this has to end, I have to face him."

There was a silence, then Phenist, the eldest brother, spoke:

"Are you sure, Kathy? You haven't discovered your pure form yet and it's too dangerous without all our powers assisting you."

"There's no other way to find it. Besides, I might not even be the One who is said to harnass all your pure forms at once."

"You are, I knew it the first time I saw you," Luna objected.

"And there has to be a better way to find your powers," Xor added.

"There isn't," Sala interrupted. "It states clearly in the prophecy: _Triggered by fury, hatred, and fear.."_

Kath nodded. "That's why I had to have been born with your soul standing beside mine- so I would learn to hate and fear the darkness." The youngest and the dark one regarded eachother coldly, and Phenist stood between them, spanning his wings to hide Kath protectively.

"We'd better create a protection ring. It'll protect Little One for a while, at least against his ranged attacks."

The creation of a protection ring among Air Elements was done by the one thing their kind loved more than the sheer joy of flight- music. It's unity had strong melding powers, which created a barrier against Dark magic around all those involved.

They sat in a circle, each of the others had an instrument that appeared in their hands and they played. Phenist and Xor had animal-skin drums (novelty for their day) and like any true drummaster from an ancient time, they had named their drums for the sounds they made- Ember and Sparks for the fireling, and Hail and Thunder for the water master. Luna summoned her gold-stringed harp. Zia, Rhem, and Sala always sang.

Ksherea called her flute. She was usually given the melody, as her music had the strongest magic of all. She had died of a broken heart, and her music could take the happiest man in the world and have him consider suicide.

Kath placed her fingers upon the floor and closed her eyes. As a piano was too huge to summon, she had a mental keyboard that allowed her to play anywhere in the spirit world.

It was these last two who began to play first, the others filling in backround. The tune was ancient and Celtic, but had strains of Ksherea's homeland of Egypt.

At the end, Kath opened her eyes and found herself back in her room. Kage had not listened to her request and was sitting nearby. The element let out a sigh.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

It was a simple question, and deserved a simple answer. But the answer was far from simple.

"You don't want to know."

"Yes, I do!"

His stubborness reached her, and she forced a weak smile.

"Very well then. My brother has always been jealous that I was the one to receive the powers. He thinks that since he is the only son of our parents, he deserves them and I don't. For years he has pursued me, and now he has found me again. He has an advanced level of Dark magic that can cause any element within a mile of him to become seriously and spontaniously sick. However, he has kidnapped the last of my people, who were hiding in an old temple of sorts. I have to face him now, I have to save them. My mentors, who I just talked to, were against that idea, as my pure form has not revealed itself as of yet. But that is a story for another day." She finished, getting to her feet with a little difficulty.

"When are you leaving?"

"Tommorrow at dawn."

Pharaohsservant: And that's Chapter One. Chapter Two to come.

All: look worredly at eachother

**UPDATE: 11/12/06- I AM DETERMINED TO GET THIS DONE BY CHRISTMAS! IF ANYONE HAS ANYTHING TO SAY, DON'T F'ING SAY IT! FIREY BLOODSHOT EYES OF DEATH**

Deep in a peaceful sleep, all members of the group were long past the worry brought about by Kath's brother's attack.

_Just remember lesson number one._ Phenist warned Kath, deep in her dream world.

_Two sides make a whole?_

_Presicely. And balance cannot be achieved without both parts- light and darkness._

_I'll remember._ With that, the wind spirit woke.

She picked up a flute- just big enough to not be a piccolo- and wrapped a note around it. They would find it the next morning when they realized she was gone. Setting it gently on her pillow, she stepped out of her window onto the makeshift balcony they had built- otherwise known as the loft.

Facing the window and spreading her wings, she took a deep breath, allowing all emotion to be purged from her soul. Dropping backward over the rail, she righted herself on a thermal and headed off into the night.

Kage was the first to notice Kath's absense. It was Kels that found the note.

_Dearest friends-_

_I've gone to face my brother once and for all. Like all adventures, there is a chance I will not return from this one. If I don't return by the full moon, channel your magic through this flute- it will play itself from the certainty of my death, as is the proper funeral for one such as I with a fate such as I fear will befall me. Do not seek to avenge me, as you will end up no better than I if I fail. Just know that this had to be done, and we shall meet again in the next life. Farewell, Kelsey, if this is indeed the end. Goodbye, Kage, my love._

_ Never Forget-_

_ Kathy_

Kelsey made a fist, crushing the note. "It's out of our hands now," she whispered, more to console herself than her fellow half-dragon.

"There it is," Kath whispered. Before her loomed a huge, black, floating castle- her brother's fortress.

Landing in the courtyard, she walked peaceably through the front doors. Standing in front of her in the middle of the entrance hall was her brother.

He was taller than her by a few inches. He had died his spikey hair black, and his eyes were a shade of yellow normally ascociated only with radiation. His skin was stark white, and he wore all black except for one silver earring in his left ear.

"Brother."

"Sister."

They regarded each other coldly for a moment.

"Come to give up my powers, sister?"

"You know as well as I do that they're MY powers, I'M the monster."

"That's funny," he spat, "the last time I checked, I'M the dark sorcerer."

"Look, Charlie-"

"NEVER CALL ME THAT!" he cut in. "That's the name our human parents gave me. I will never use it. And no one else will, EVER!" As he finished speaking, two twisted creatures came from the darkness and seized Kath's arms. "You will refer to me as Lu'ro. Guards- to the dungeon."

Kath went without a fight. She knew how her brother planned to draw the power from her very soul, and she knew how to combat that.

Once in the dungeon, an iron collar was fastened around her throat. A chain attached the collar to the wall behind. Shackles were bound to her wrists and ankles- also with restrainment chains. Kath forced herself to relax, it would not be the first time she was in a dungeon, nor would it be the last.

After some time, the dark captor entered the dungeon and looked down at his sister with a smirk on his face.

"You think your little boyfriend can save you, don't you, sister? You always were the hopeless romantic. Well, I suppose all girls are. But I think I should bring you down to earth, monster, for no one can save you now." He made a sweeping motion with his hand, and a window opened. Kath could see all that occurred outside as she gazed into it. Shadow was circling the castle, trying to find a way in, deflected by a sort of barrier. "Before your very eyes, your loverboy will be destroyed," he snapped his fingers. Kage was frozen in midair, apparently unable to move. He snapped again, and giant fireballs came from nowhere, slamming into the hapless dragon, who fell, burning, out of the sky.

Kath flinched, but then a thin smile spread over her face. "You're lying."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

"You're lying."

"How would you know?"

"When people lie, there's a physical reaction. I can sense your breathing- harder and faster, and your heart- racing, for the sound it makes is merely waves of air. If it was the truth, you'd be more relaxed than that."

"You worthless piece of shit!"

She raised her head, the smirk clearly causing the warlock to sweat. He somewhat regained his composure before he responded.

"They still can't save you. No one can save you! Your spirit will break and then I'll drain the power from your body as a dog sucks marrow from a bone."

_You really need to work on your analogies..._ Kath thought as she rolled her eyes.

As if reading her thoughts, her captor rushed forward, lifting her by her neck, meaning to choke her. The wind element put her hands to her brother's wrist as she muttered with her last breath an ancient incantation. All her tensed muscles relaxed as she waited to be put down. After all, she no longer needed to breathe. However, this spell, like all others, came with a cost. She would have no voice for 3 hours- and when she got it back, she would breathe again.

Now do not think for a second that while this was all going on, Kels and Kage were just sitting around playing pingpong.

Kels was pacing- a habit she never EVER had, because she forced herself to relax, unable to worry.

Kage was battling conflicting emotions. Kath clearly wanted to face this alone- but she never had to be alone, he would be there, battling at her side, in a heartbeat. _Heartbeat_. The word seemed to echo in his head. It was almost as though (judging by the note) that Kath intended to die. _Die._ After the third echo of the word, Kage shot off like a dart, scanning the horizon for Charlie's floating castle.

The warlock dropped his sister and she rubbed her neck gingerly. Maybe she didn't have to breathe, but it still hurt.

"What... How... It's another power, isn't it? Another thing you stole from me!"

Kath opened her mouth to retort that she had been born with her powers, and she hadn't stolen a thing, but no sound came out. She merely mouthed the words, and air escaped, but no sound was created or heard.

"Ah, so you are not exempt from equivelent exchange. You do not need to breathe, but your voice has been silenced as long as you can't. A pity, as you will not be able to scream and only take my tortures in silence. Remember when you were little, and mom had you locked up in that cage?"

_That bitch was not my mother._

"And you used to ask what crime you had committed, because only criminals and animals were kept in cages?"

_Don't say it..._

"Do your remember your crime?"

_More than I know my own name._

"You have commited the crime of existance. You deserve to be locked up... BECAUSE YOU EXIST!" The warlock acompanied this explosion with a huge array of punches, slaps, and kicks- and Kath was unable to utter a sound. "YOU KNOW SOMETHING, SISTER, SHE'S RIGHT! I WAS THE FIRST BORN SON, I SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN THE POWERS! ME! ME! ME!"

_You... are not... my brother._ Kath glowered up at him, her grey eyes paling to silver. _You don't deserve to be called family. The demon you've harbored so long has destroyed you completely, there is none of your natural light left._

Suddenly, she changed into her true form. Using her strong wings, she broke the chains that held her and blew her adversary back several yards. Suddenly she was filled with an understanding.

Spreading her arms out as far as she could reach, two swords appeared, one in each hand. In the right, a pure white sword, runes of gold embellished on the blade. In her left, the weapon was black, and the runes, though identical, were red and glowing. Opening her eyes, now glowing with sightless silver, the wind element stared down her foe as her wings, hair, and skin paled to the pale grey of a Nobody's skin.

The air element rushed forward with the senseless bloodlust instinct of an enraged animal. Her brother fought with a scythe that appeared form thin air. They both fought valiantly, and though it seemed that Kath would give up her fight when the human took a slice out of her side, she ignored the blood now flowing freely and continued her onslaught. From deep inside herself she called forth an inferno of Phoenix fire, a torrent of rain and filled the air with lightning. Her opponenet was stunned.

She slammed the Dark sword into the ground. Swinging her remaining blade in a wide arc, she released a pure white light that, as soon as it hit the demon, disintigrated him.

Breathing hard, Kath returned to first her true, then human forms. Doubling over in pain from the ragged wound in her side, she colapsed onto the dungeon floor, unconcious from loss of blood.

Chains dissolved. Deep within the darkest dungeons of the castle, the other wind elements were being freed from the sorcerer's spell. Many did all they could do to just get out of the place and into the open air.

Kage wasted no time finding the castle and getting inside. It didn't take him long to find Kath.

He caught sight of her at the bottom of the staircase and bolted across the room. Kneeling beside her, he called to her, begging her to wake up. Calling all of his magic, he put it to work healing the jagged gash in his love's flesh. Slowly the wound closed, but there was no response from the girl.

"No... Rodwen..." the half-dragon whispered, tears falling unchecked from his amythist eyes. He cradled her to him, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. His aura became visible and glowed pure white. "Don't do this to me, Rodwen! Please, open your eyes!" _No... no, I can't lose her..._ Shadow's thoughts grew dark in his pain.

It is impossible to esimate how long he stayed like that before a small whisper broke the silence.

"Kage...?" it was weak, barely audible, but the voice tried again. "Kage..."

A gentle hand brushed his cheek. The half dragon opened his eyes to look into the air element's grey ones. Brushing away a stray tear, she asked, "Why do you cry, my love?"

Before he said anything, he kissed her- both were reluctant to end it. At length, he pulled away, and whispered,

"I thought I was too late, that I had lost you..."

She shook her head, smiling. "No. You came in time. I knew you would. Don't you ever get tired of coming to my rescue?"

He smiled. "No, as long as I can keep you safe."

They kissed again, both wishing that such a perfect time could last forever.

After some time, though, Kath reasoned, "We should get back home- Kels'll think we're both dead."

Kage nodded. Kath sat up, and tried to stand. When she stumbled, he caught her, and after a moment, she righted herself. They managed to get home in one piece.

Kels came running out of the house and shook Kath's shoulders wildly, demanding an explanation. Kath, still weak from lack of blood, passed out under the stress. Kage caught her and carried her inside, Kels demanding an explanation the whole way.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!" she demanded for the hundreth time.

"If you'll shut up for a moment, I'll tell you."

Kels glowered at him.

He lay his beloved on the couch and spent a moment gazing affectionately at her peaceful, sleeping face before turning with irritation to his fellow dragon.

"She was bleeding to death when I found her. It took all my strength to heal her, but she still needs to rest. DON'T wake her up."

With that, he sank into the floor. Kels knew he wasn't gone- just resting, being one with the shadows where no one could bother him.

Kath slowly woke up. Light was streaming through the window in front of her. She groaned, it hurt her eyes. Someone had put a blanket over her while she was sleeping- that was nice of them.

She sleepily stumbled into the kitchen, where Shadow was stirring something in a pot that was grey and smelled of old tires.

"How long have I been sleeping...?"

"Two days," replied the dragon, removing the gloop from the stove and spooning some into a bowl.

"Wow... ow... was I run over by an 18-wheeler by any chance?"

"No... why?"

"Cause I feel like shit."

He walked over and hugged her, but she put a finger to his lips and he drew closer for a kiss.

"You don't want to kiss me, I've got morning breath," she said. He smiled and kissed her anyway.

"You really think I care about that sort of thing?" he asked playfully. Pulling away, he turned back to his culinary handiwork. "Sit down and eat something, you'll feel better."

Kath sat, and presently a steaming bowl of the grey slop was set in front of her.

"What is this," she inquired, "Liquified asparagus?"

"Close." The dragon said. "It's a lot of things, but it'll give you the nutrition you need to fully recover."

The air element tilted her head and considered her options. In the end, she decided it'd be best to just eat it- after all, Kage wouldn't poison her. Suprisingly, the cement-like foodstuff had no taste and was easy enough to swallow.

She sat back and took a deep breath before saying, "You want to know what happened, don't you?"

Kage nodded.

"You have every right to know, but I'm afraid I cannot tell you." She raised a hand to stop his protest. "After all, how can I tell you something even _I_ don't know?"

"How can you not know?!" he exploded. "You were there, it was you that destroyed that thing!"

A far-away look crossed her face as she searched for the right words. "Yes, I was there but..." she sighed. "Let me start from the start. Beyond my true form, beyond what I really am, there is a pure form where spirit and body become one in the same. All the avians with my basic true form's frame have been attached to a secondary element in this way, but I am connected to all of them and all of their powers instead. When I went into my pure form by accident, my body kept fighting, but it was like I was watching through the window of my eyes- I wasn't in control. If you saw what I did... what I'm capable of... you'd understand what I have to do now."

He nodded. "But what are you going to do?"

"Go to the only people who can train me to harnass my powers- Raistlin and Luna."


	3. Revelations

Previously

_**Previously...**_

"_If you saw what I did... what I'm capable of... you'd understand what I have to do now."_

_He nodded. "But what are you going to do?"_

"_Go to the only people who can train me to harnass my powers- Raistlin and Luna."_

"I'm going with you." The dragon said decisively.

Kath stood and drew herself up to her full height of 5 feet and 6 inches. "Kage, you can't. You know how Raistlin feels about dragons- and it's a miracle he hasn't found you out yet."

Kage stood and drew himself up to his full height of 5 feet and _**8**_ inches- there were some days Kath resented that eight. Wrapping his arms around her, he whispered. "I'll be alright. Besides, I love you far too much to let you go through this alone."

Kath smiled sadly and hugged him tight. A long moment passed before they let eachother go.

"I'm coming with you."

The element nodded. "Alright."

"Hey," a thrid voice said. The couple turned. Kels stood in the doorway. "When were yall gonna tell me I could come too?"

"I'm telling you, this is a bad idea."

It was a couple of hours later, and all the essentials were packed in Kels' magic shrink sack.

"Having one of you over there is bad enough. If both of you go, there'll be pandemonium when Raist figures everything out. Remember, we could be there for weeks, maybe months."

"All the more reason for us to go- you'll get lonesome." Kels retorted, smirking and throwing Kage a sideways glance.

Scrunching her face up in a scowl, Kath spat, "Then what reason is there for you to go?"

"Aww, come on, Kathy, I haven't even seen the castle. It's not fair to me, your best friend, to be stuck sitting here twiddling my thumbs while the two of you are galavanting off in the last true paradise on earth."

Kath felt as though her foot was shoved in her mouth and pulled a frog face by stretching the skin horizontally and sticking out her tounge- her way of saying "not cool".

They all grew their wings and took off, Kath leading. After many hours of flying, she called back to Kels, "We're getting close." They dove down to a hundred feet. At first, the land was covered in fog so thick the dragon couldn't see anything. As it began to clear, she could see a line of mountains to their left, and many emerald-green hills below.

"'Tis Ireland!" she called.

"No, but it sure does look like it, eh?"

Kath went into a series of spirals that the dragons, after a few moments, dared not to follow. Then she shot straight up and spun happily through the clouds, overjoyed at the pure air. Instantly regaining seriousness, she returned to her friends and appologized. Gliding over a particularly tall hill, the castle became visible. Its tall spires of white and black reached to the sky, the grey walls nestled in the heart of a valley of green.

They entered the castle without much trouble.

Luna met them in the hall, embracing each of them and welcoming them in turn.

"I know why you're here," she said to Kath, before she uttered a word. "And you and your friends can stay, of course- on just one condition."

"What's the condition?" the younger asked warily.

Luna smiled. "I've been so busy dealing with our elven beurocrat friends I haven't had time to train the younglings. Would you please, Kathalita?"

Kath's face split in a grin. "Really? You would trust me with that? I... It would be my honor to! Thank you so much, my queen."

"And then, once you get that taken care of and I've got this whole Ansalon mess sorted out, I'll train you to master the pure form."

Kath bowed. "Thank you, my queen."

"Well, you can stay here in your rooms if you want- it's going to be a very boring lesson."

Kels punched Kath's shoulder. "Of course I want to come. Besides, you're gonna need help."

"No I'm not."

"Teddy bear."

Kath screamed and hid behind Kage.

"See?"

"Not fair!"

"She's right, Rodwen. Let me come too."

She buried her face in his back and a muffled "alright" was heard.

They walked into the room and Kels let out a muffled "wow".

Indeed, it was justified. For, facing the other side of the room, were 5 rows of younglings meditating. The students (8 and 9 years of age) were seperated by element- one row for each (Air, Water, Fire, Earth, and Wood). The air element and two dragons walked to the front of the gym-sized room.

Kath took three wooden staffs from the wall and handed one to each friend. The dragons seperated to the sides of the room, Kathy still standing motionless and eyes closed in the center.

"Whenever you BOTH want to get your butts kicked. I'm not going to go easy on either of you."

The children opened their eyes and backed away from their teacher, watching eagerly, but not making a sound.

"Defend yourself!" Kels cried, lunging forward.

Her volley of lightning-quick strikes were countered by the element with seemingly no effort. After a few minutes, Kels backed off, breathing heavily.

"I underestimated you."

"Elements, once fully trained, are absolutely wicked in battle- on account of we never make the same mistake twice."

"Seems you'd made that one before, then."

Kath recognized the stall tactic. Whirling, she caught Kage's surprise attack in midair and used the other end of her staff to hit him in the groin as a counterattack.

"No fair," he managed to get out before he collapsed in pain.

"All's fair," she said, claiming his dropped weapon. The element knew Kels was charging her from behind. She stepped to the side and extended one of her weapons just far enough to trip her friend. With the other, she tapped the dragon's neck. "Kill." She said and looked over at Kage, still moaning in pain. "I'd say that's a kill, what'do you think?" she asked a brown-haired, green-eyed boy nearby. He nodded, awestruck.

"Noone is going to make you do this," she said to the children, automatically seeming infinitely kinder. "If you do not wish to weild a weapon, you may leave now. But do not be afraid. I'm only teaching you the very first rule to always remember while you're fighting today."

A little, black-haired girl raised her hand.

"Yes, little one?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but isn't fighting for... well... the boys?"

Kath put her hands on her hips. "Now who on the Creator's green earth told you that?"

The little girl pointed to a group of five or so girls, all blonde, who were sitting in a corner, whispering maliciously.

"Is there something you would like to share, ladies?" They just giggled. "Because you know, if you won't come right out with it, I'll just tell the other students."

"Like you can't like do that!" the clear ringleader called out.

"Oh, can't I? Unless you're blind, you'll remember that I'm an air element. If I want to, I can hear conversations through three solid rock walls. I know everything you've been saying." They went pale as paper. "Now, will you share your interesting little gossip?"

When they didn't respond, Kath went ahead and continued.

"You started out by saying I was a freak- after all, who's ever heard of a woman fighting? You also said that by the color of my wings, I was some sort of devil come into human form-" at this, she changed the tone of her voice to mimic the ringleader. "Like, yeah! She's like, totally impure, if like, she's like, supposed to, like, be like, an angel or like something!" Returning to her normal tone she continued. "Then you trashed my friend, again with the woman fighter. Then you ragged our friend here who's still recovering about almost everything- you said he was ugly, that his hair was too long for your standards, etc. And then you said he was a moron for not attacking me faster- oh, and he's my boyfriend, by the way." Kath began to examine her nails, clearly bored.

One of the girls leaned over and whispered something more into the ringleader's ear.

"Well, don't you have a dirty mind for someone merely 8 years old! We _are_ staying in _separate_ rooms, thank you _very_ much!" It was obvious that she was extremely angry, but she controlled herself when she saw that she was instilling fear in the hearts of those miscreants. Returning to her nails, she continued to rattle off a series of rumors so vile that pretty soon every person outside the little clique was ready to beat the blondies to a bloody pulp.

"Now get out of my classroom," the air element finished, her storm-grey eyes along with about 50 others of various colors boring into the clique as they fled. "Anyone else?" she said, more cheerfully. "Don't worry, I won't do that to you if you do, I just can't stand gossipers."

None of the children moved.

"Ma'am?" the brown-haired boy said, tugging on her hand.

"Yes, little one?" she answered, smiling and looking down at him.

"I think I speak for everyone here when I say we want to learn to be strong like you. Noone's ever stood up to those girls, noone!"

She knelt to be eye-level with him. "Why not?"

"They say mean things, things that hurt as though they hit you."

"Well, you don't have to believe anything they say. In fact, don't. They're mean and evil and it doesn't matter what they think. And what they say shouldn't change what you think." There was a small pause here as the younglings nodded. "What's your name?"

"Xendor, ma'am."

"That's a nice name. Mine's Kathy. What's your element?"

"I don't know ma'am," when he saw her confusion, he explained. His father was an earth element, but his mother was a wood nymph. She soon learned that the little girl's name was Taryn and she was an air element as well. After a small while, Kathy knew all the names. The lesson resumed as planned afterward.

Once back in their rooms, Kels asked Kath a volley of questions, mostly about how the children could be so mature for their age.

"We have to grow up fast," Kath replied. "Otherwise, our powers could seriously hurt someone or something." She then giggled and turned to Kage. "You alright?" she asked.

"No thanks to you."

"Eh, put some ice on it," Kels said. They hid giggles behind their hands as he staggered over to the door.

"I'm gonna take a nap, and when I wake up-" here he took a breath, "Rematch. No blows below the belt."

Kath smiled and nodded. Walking over to the poor guy, she helped him get to his room. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she left.

But the rematch would be postponed longer than any of them would have ever imagined.

**Pharaohsservant:** And chapter one of a billion ends!

**Kath:** A billion?!

**Pharaohsservant:** Yeppers! I gots tons of ideas for scenes in this story!

**Kath:** So how long until I can actually get that training I came for in the first place?

**Pharaohsservant:** You don't want me to answer that...

Kels had long since gone to bed. Kathy, unable to sleep, wandered aimlessly through the castle, dressed in the plain cotton shirt and pants she had worn all day. A little waltz ran through her head, but she couldn't really identify where it came from.

Her feet took her where they would. She walked through corridors she had no idea ever existed. Eventually, she found a huge wooden door. At her eye level, there were runes carved into the dark grain. She closed her eyes and ran her hands over them to read the message:

_These doors are never to open. A history hides behind them, but until the time comes when the Creator himself sends the one who will open them, these doors shall remain locked._

There was a great sorrow behind the words, Kath could feel it. However, the curiosity was unbareable. Perhaps she could get inside and out before anyone knew the difference. She pushed against the doors with both hands, only to find them frozen to the door by ice from nowhere.

Gold, magic runes glittered just above her hands.

_Speak thy name._

"Kathalita," she answered the door and instantly felt silly until her hands were freed and runes changed to:

_Proceed._

The huge wooden slabs swung open silently. She saw only darkness, but when she entered, lamps on both sides of a long, wide hallway lit. One wall was covered in thick dust. With a small breeze, she blew a section of it away. She was surprised to see a mural depicting the entire life and story of Luna and Sala. Kath read it with great interest, even though she knew the tale by heart- clearly the place had been closed for years, but the paint was still in perfect condition, as if it had been painted yesterday.

She continued down the hall, reading one mural after the next and learning interesting bits of stories that she thought she had already known. In turn, she watched the lives of Phenist, Ksherea, Rhem, Zia, and Xor. But the most interesting thing was that they were all childeren of Luna and Raistlin- brothers and sisters in not only spirit, but blood.

The little hairs on the back of Kath's neck stood up as she pulled back to clear up another section of wall. All the most powerful air elements had already been painted- what else could there be? Perhaps nothing... but surely there wasn't just a huge blank wall going on into the darkness...

She swept away the dust and read the next part of the mural.

Kath reeled back in shock- it couldn't be true. This was some kind of twisted joke. But as first one heartbeat, then another, passed without someone jumping out at her and laughing, the cold reality sunk in.

_It's not true... it can't be true... _

But she couldn't reassure herself. She opened her wings and drew a gust of air from behind to speed her flight through the long, seemingly endless hallway. After a few minutes, the hallway ended and she stopped so abruptly that the wind's momentum made her stumble on landing.

There was blood everywhere. Or, rather, blood stains. They were splattered all over what once must have been a smooth, reflective floor. Walls, ripped apart with great force and blackened by fire, reached with broken hands toward the lapis lazuli sky and crescent moon far above. Kath's vision blurred. She shut her eyes in an attempt to escape the nightmare.

But as she did, a vision entered her mind. The walls leaped alight with fire as though 16 years had not passed. Corpses littered the floor.

Screams, screams. Cries of horror, shrieks of pain. The rattle of a last breath. The stench of death. A huge, looming, terrifying shadow overhead. Purple eyes shot blood red with dragonrage. The grasp of cold, cruel claws on her skin.

The avian's eyes flew open and she fell to her knees. A thousand emotions raged through her- sadness, confusion, fear. Anger there was also, but Kath wasn't sure what to think. All she knew was that it _hurt_. All these things, these revelations- they seemed to tear her apart from within. Tears she had been holding back now flowed freely.

"So, now you know." A gentle hand rested on Kathy's shoulder. "Surely you understand now." Two long, strong arms encircled her, but she shoved Raistlin away. "I understand," he said. "You're hurt. We're attacking the dragons in two days, a final vengence."

The sorceress whirled to see the vampiric smile on the time keeper's tanned face. She gritted her teeth, rage held in check behind her eyes.

"How dare you."

The smile disappeared.

"The dragons are a part of this earth, just as you and I. They have a choice between the light or darkness, as we do- as all of the Tribes do! The Tribes need to be working together, to keep the Destroyer from killing this good green earth! But because of your blindness, you wish to wipe out our greatest allies!"

"The dragons are not our friends!"

"They are not our enemies!"

"How dare you speak to me this way!"

Kath sensed Luna behind her, but made no move. She also sensed that Clay, Kryz, Kage, and Kels were on their way- reinforcements.

Raistlin stood. "Kathalita," he put his hands on her shoulders. "You will take your place. You're just a little confused right now, by the time I leave tomorrow, you will want to fight by my side. But now it is time to leave behind these childish illusions. You are a woman. Fighting is man's work. Now take your place as princess, as you are destined!"

Lightning flashed in the twin storms glaring back at Raistlin.

"No."

"What... did... you... say?" The time keeper's long fingers dug into Kath's back, but she did not falter.

"My destiny is far from here. I will not let you take over my life as you have so many others," she didn't flinch as blood began to trickle from the little cuts caused by her father's nails. "I am not the angel you wish me to be, and I will not conform!" She caused a small tornado between them, throwing them both many yards apart.

Her friends huried over, and it took quite a bit of convincing and promising to tell everything later to get them to stop worrying.

"You shall pay for this insolence!" The five heard before Clay, a tall, well-built earth element, staggered in pain from a sudden, open wound stretching from his shoulder to the center of his back.

"CLAY!" Kryz screamed as he fell back, catching him. Kath darted in front of her friends, spreading her wings wide to protect them.

"You fool! Do you not realize what they are?" His golden hourglass eyes glowed with a truthseeing spell. Everything the five were hiding he now knew. The sorceress nodded.

"One is a half-dragon, a confidante, a friend who I would trust with my life. Two more are dear friends, elements, whose love for eachother is forbidden by you. And the fourth..." her eyes narrowed, finally ready to reveal the one truth she had been hiding from him for what seemed like forever. "Another half-dragon, who has always protected me, and so I shall do the same for him. Don't you understand, father? I love him!"

This final declaration seemed to drain Raistlin of what little sanity he had left. The pupils shrank inside his head as he made wild swiping motions into the air, which became deep, bloody wounds all over the avian's body, cutting only flesh and leaving her clothes stained red.

"Run!" she screamed. "Kels, help Kryz and Clay. To Specus Vitae. Quickly!" She fell to one knee."GO!"

Kels wasn't one to ask questions. She grabbed the two elements and changed into her true form, catching them on her back as she lept off the cliff behind her. _I hope you know what you're doing,_ she thought, looking back at her suffering friend with one eye as she disappeared into the night.

"Get out of here!" Kath screamed to Kage, who hadn't left her side.

"I won't leave without you!"

Kath couldn't answer because she nearly passed out and fell off the cliff. Quickly, Shadow changed into his true form and caught her, flying as quickly as possible, going through a few inter-dimensional warp panels to throw off any persuers.

"Why..." she croaked from his back.

_Shh, don't speak._ He begged within their mind-link.

_You should have saved yourself..._

_I couldn't do that to you. Where did you send the others?_

_The Cave of Life. No creature of darkness can go inside, and Raist has lost it. I'll explain everything there._

_Aren't you forgetting? My alignment is darkness._

"But... not... in your heart..." she whispered before blacking out.

_I have got to hurry..._ Kage thought to himself, opening a warp gate to within a mile of their destination.

The black mouth of the cave yawned before him as he changed into his human form and lifted the unconcious girl in his arms. _Please, _he prayed silently, _oh please don't let me be too late..._ The cave wasn't very deep. A few yards inside he found Kels, who informed him that Kryz was able to heal Clay with a little of the holy water from a deep spring in the back. She gasped when she saw her friend's condition, and quickly led Shadow to the spring.

A wide, deep pool of water reached into the darkness from where he now stood, and the cave's ceiling opened here to the sky, almost as dark as the water. He could see the beginnings of dawn on one edge of the aperture, the sun's rays illuminating a patch of clear, blue-tinted water. He waded until he was waist-deep in this brightened circle, lowering Kath into the water as he went. Ribbons of her blood stained the water into red dye; her pulse was hopelessly weak; her breathing hardly existed.

_So many times she's almost died..._ Shadow thought. _But nothing like this. _First one tear, then another, fell from the dragon's amythist eyes. _God, please save her. It would have been all of us, but she gave us a chance to get away. Let her live, save her..._

_It's alright, Shadow._ A voice in the back of his mind told him. _She is safe now._

His strong, clawed hands relinquished their hold, and the water pulled Kath farther away, and deeper down, so that neither of the dragons could see her in the foggy, bloody water. The red of the water faded until it was clear again. The dragons quickly spotted their friend as the blood returned to its source, the wounds miraculously healing before their eyes.

Kath rose from the water, slowly, laboriously. "Kelsey," she croaked. "Sister, help me..."

Kels didn't hesitate to be her friend's crutch as she struggled to walk through the haze the healing had left her in. She sat near Kryz and Clay, feeling the cool calmness of the earth before returning to her sensible self.

"Clay and Kryz are coldblooded. It's important that they don't freeze. There's a cave painting on one of the walls down there... a fawn and a rabbit."

"Yeah, what's with that anyway?"

"It's a fake wall," Kath continued without missing a beat. "There's a room behind it with blankets- at least, there used to be. It's been too long since my last visit here..."

Kels got Kath's drift and hurried over, surprised to find the room. There were enough warm, fleece blankets for everyone, and reasonably-new hard tac as well. She returned, spoils in hand.

"We won't starve either," she announced.

Kath, in her corner, nodded, a hand pressed to her forehead to gather her thoughts. Hugging the blanket her best friend offered her around her shoulders, she murmured, "I suppose I tell everything now."

Eight eyes looked over to her and gathered in a circle- the only thing missing was a fire. Kath took a deep breath.

"Then I suppose I'd better start at the beginning."


	4. Truths

Pharaohsservant: Oi, paloi

**Redwingblackbird:** Oi, paloi. Part three.

**Kath:** Are we FINALLY going to explain ourselves?

**Redwingblackbird:** Don't think we have much choice.

**Kath:** Then let me get started.

Like any good storyteller, I should begin my story where it begins- and since it is time that you, my friends, finally learned every secret I've withheld and every one I have just discovered, I shall begin with my birth. How that came to pass is none of our concerns... but I should begin the story, as it is a long one and we are all weary from a long, terrifying night.

So, of course, I was born. Please do not be angry, my friends, for this I have learned too recently to even tell: I am the third daughter of Raistlin the Time Keeper and Luna the Pure. My brothers and sisters are Phenist the Fire, Ksherea the Ice, Zia the Lightning, Rhem the Healer, and Xor the Water. Please do not look so horrified as each of you realizes, in turn, that I am a princess- right now, I have to reason to want that role. But in order to understand that, you must hear the end of my story.

I can only tell you this because the mural which told me of my true identity said so, but I was a happy infant, deeply in-tune with my element and the creatures aligned with it. Upon my first birthday, the day on which elemental memories begin, no matter how scattered and strange, Raistlin and Luna threw a ball. Many elements were gathered in the wonderous hall, noone suspecting what would happen next.

A black dragon who had given over his soul to the darkness was consumed with dragonrage and with his brute strength, ripped the roof off the building, lighting the walls with flames the fire elementals couldn't tame. Many were burned to death, their screams wasted. Others, in sorrow of the ones they lost, committed suicide. A handful suffocated as the air became too superheated to breathe.

Luna thought she could run and hide, carrying me- the dragon would eventually win in an arial battle. But her only exit collapsed in a heap of flaming debris just as she reached it. The dragon morphed into his demi form and snatched me out of my mother's arms, soaring away. Luna and Raistlin spread their wings and gave chase, but just when it seemed they would catch the kidnapper, he disappeared through a portal. Raistlin searched for me, but could not find me. In grief, he returned to the castle and sealed away the hallway and the ballroom it lead to with a spell- if the Creator would let me live, and let me return, that I may one day learn the truth.

Meanwhile, the dragon found a human couple who had no children and hypnotised them into believing that I was their only daughter, Katherine, that he had never come, and that they loved me very much. He also cast a spell upon me, supressing my memories and slowing the speed I acquired them in, unless they could be triggered in some way- a sort of amnesia.

And so I was raised as a human, among humans, with human-paced memories. I was not happy, but I was not sad for a reason I only realize now was because I could not be true to myself and was detached from my element due to the dragon's spell. When I was six, the wind reached out to me, and I opened to my true form. It was an accident, but my human parents were horrified by the transformation. They threw me in a cage, not sure what else to do, and never told anyone where I had gone. I lived four years this way, having just enough food and water to survive, while the wind whispered to me in my dreams, slowly teaching me spells, lore, and answered the neverending questions "why".

But one day my hearing advancement spell told me that they were going to sell me to a zoo- yes, a zoo. Don't look so surprised. In fact, they already had an offer for me in San Diego for over 10 million dollars. There I would be studied by Californian scientists until I died. I would be a great scientific discovery, given some scientific name by a jackass so full of himself that he thought of me as an animal- not having a soul and forever at the mercy of my captors.

That night, whatever ghost was teaching me told me how to manipulate fire. This was my first non-air oriented spell. I breathed just enough fire to melt the bars and not set off the smoke alarm in my room, then, opened the window to the room I was kept in and slipped away into the blackest night any of you can possibly imagine. My memories of the next time period are scattered and few. I'm not exactly sure how much time passed until the centaurs found me shivering in the cold, dead of winter about 20 miles from Raistlin's castle.

I rode home on one of their backs, and Zarroc, their captain, has been my friend ever since. Raist and Luna took me in and cared for me, never suspecting that I was their lost daughter after all. Luna took me on my first flight, and Raist gave me a greater harnass on my power, also giving me basic lessons in swordsmanship. After 8 months this way, Raist thought I would best serve the Creator if I was enlisted in the Dragonslayers, and so it came to pass.

For a year my life was a part of their timetable, I don't even know how many innocent lives I am partially accountable for. No, Kage, don't comfort me! Do you have any idea how close to death you came? You would have died, Kelsey too, and it would have been at my hands! The Dragonhunters had two books which contain the names and deathspells of every dragon on Earth. If a person touches you in the slightest and mutters your deathspell, you'll turn to dust immediately. No time even to scream. At the time I left, I was sorceress in their hunting party- and the Dragonhunters do not distinguish between good and evil. They do their part to extinguish evil, it's true, but it's not right all the same.

One night, a dragon came to me in my dream. This was Gandora, a healing dragon. She taught me most of what I know now of dragons, including that not all of you are evil, and that killing good dragons is wrong. There was a friendship founded in the timeless quality of dreams. Imagine my dismay when Gandora was the next dragon to be slaughtered! At first, I had no choice but to go along, but as we neared her dwelling place, something inside of me snapped and I began attacking my comrades. Try as I might, I was no match for four class-A knights. Two of them held me in their iron grip as the others stepped forward. Dear Gandora did not fight them, did not struggle at all- she merely shed a single tear which crystalized and fell to the ground. She did not seem to feel the sword they thrust between her eyes before uttering the single word which stole her from this world. As her cyan scales faded to a dead gray, my captors released me- now there was nothing I could do. I sped forward, snatching the crystal, sending it far away with my power to this place.

I could not flee from the cave, however. I was locked in a dungeon back at HQ, and left there for the night. But I had a plan. Since birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs, returning to cold-blooded roots was both complecated and simple. The way our magic works, as long as you can connect whatever spell you're trying to pull off to your element and convince it that it can do the task, you can. But since dinosaurs are primarily aligned with earth, it's a bit more difficult for me to pull off dinosaur-like spells, which are about all I can do with Earth. In any case, I decreased my blood temperature to a steady 65 degrees- more than enough to be considered dead by the knight's puny human minds. When I was taken out of the dungeon, snapping out of my trance-like state was the easy part- after all, returning things to natural is in the body's programming. In the split second I had before they sounded the alarm, I broke the sound barrier in order to steal the books and get away. Try as they might, none of them could fly.

Where are they? I hid them, of course. Here, where they are safe from any with malicious intent. And to keep them from the unknowing, hidden so well their exact location will be a secret I take to my grave. In any case, I couldn't return to the castle, Raistlin was furious. After hiding the books, I created my staff. Surely you all remember this- it's one of my favorite weapons. The crystal is Gandora's tear.

I'm sorry, let me finish. From here I set out with only my staff, determined to make a new life for myself and put my past behind me. I somehow made my way to Texas, met Evie, and you all know most of the mini-adventures from there. But there are a few important ones I should recap. I met Kels, I disappeared for the third time in my life, I met and fell in love with Kage. Sala claimed control of my body a couple of times, but I returned thanks to this. Shadow's the only one of you to have seen it before. It's half of a necklace, half of a spell. The original necklace belonged to Selina, my grandmother. It was broken into two halves and given to Luna and Sala when they fled to Earth. Luna passed hers on to me to protect me from Sala when I did not know who I was- it weakens her dark power. I do not need it anymore. At any rate, Raistlin holds the other half, and the spell cannot be completed without it. When the necklace is returned to it's original state, Sala will be banished forever. I will be whole.

Now you know everything. Everything I've buried and entombed within my mind for years.

I'll save you the trouble of running me out.

At first, I didn't understand what she was saying. But when Kathy stood, sent her staff away, and began to walk out of the cave, I jumped up.

"What are you doing?!" I cried.

"Leaving. This is what you want, isn't it? Surely you can't love me after you've heard the things... the terrible things I've done, Kage," her voice cracked. She took another step.

"You didn't know the truth," I argued. "You only knew the lies a vengeful Raistlin was whispering in your ear!"

"I stole lives," I knew she was trying not to cry. "Lives precious to God. If I was tortured every day for the rest of my life, if I never saw you again, it couldn't erase what I've done."

While she spoke, still facing the cave mouth and not me, I walked up behind her. Wrapping my arms around her, I whispered, "You were used."

"I watched a friend die!" she pulled away from me, emotions raging in a tempest within her head.

"You couldn't do otherwise."

"Then it was my weakness that killed her!" she was screaming now.

"No," I held her close. "Oh, Rodwen, no. None of that murder was your fault."

_Yes, it was._ She thought, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs of tears she refused to let fall. I sensed the pent up sorrow, begging for release.

"You also saved lives," I whispered, "Countless lives. You saved Kelsey. You saved me. If the Lord was truly angry with you, he never would have brought us together, never would have let us fall in love. He would not have saved you from death an hour ago."

She turned to face me. I brushed away a stray tear and she looked away, shutting her eyes tight. _No, stop. _She commanded herelf. _I'm stronger than this. _

I gently tilted her chin up, and her beautiful gray eyes opened. "It's alright to cry," I murmured. Her eyes welled over and I held her tight to me. Her head rested on my chest as tears ran down her face in a torrent.

Eventually, I sensed the pain subside, and I spoke. "You've been hurt, my love. I won't hurt you, I swear it." My love pulled back a little, wiping her eyes. She looked back up at me, her swollen eyes unreadable. "I love you, Rodwen," I said, and the words couldn't have been more true.

"I love you too, Kage. More than you can ever know," her smile was genuine. Our lips met and for one joyous moment, nothing else seemed to matter. Then she pulled away, blushing slightly, when Kels cleared her throat for attentiton.

"I'm sorry, princess. I needed time for it all to sink in," she stood, placed her right hand over her heart, and bowed. Rodwen took a step back, hurt.

"Kels..." she murmered. "Please, Kels, don't."

"Why not?" Kryz answered, following suit. "Your title demands it." I had hardly met the water elemental, but partially disliked her for not realizing Kathy's pain.

"Kryz..." her voice was weak, pleading. _Even my sisters..._

Clay rose, moved to stand beside me, and set off the bomb by saying just one word in a language I couldn't place.

"Trors," he spat.

"Jyfm cxc hrl nfh?" Kathy returned, whirling. At least, this is the best I can spell it. The speaking was really a series of sounds made with no connection to english, so it's difficult to imitate. I could hear one side of the conversation through Kathy's mind, but the rest escapes me. _What did you say?_

"Trors! Mybh'ob erjxsz mr hrl, elm hrl crs'm jfsm hrlo nlmwbdm'n lschxsz cbkrmxrs?"

"Efnmfoc! Hrl yfkb sr oxzym! Ebz arozxkbsbnn!" _Bastard! You have no right! Beg forgiveness!_

"X myrlzym hrl cxcs'm jfsm hrlo mxmub."

Her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. "Co hrl obfuuh jfsm mr axzym tb Dufh?" It was a threat, not a question. Clay took a step back, eyes wide in fear. Though he was a head taller than Rodwen, she seemed the stronger of the two. _Do you really want to fight me Clay? _A moment passed. Noone moved. A wicked smile tugged at Kathy's lips. "Ebz aro tbodh, jyxub X't nmxuu jxuuxsz mr zxkb xm." Her remark seemed to hang in the air: _Beg for mercy- while I'm still willing to give it._

The Earth warrior fell to his knees, terrified. Rodwen's eyes flashed red. "I thought as much," Sala muttered. For now the evil aunt of my beloved had returned again. Using one talon, she made a small cut on the back of Clay's ear- it would have caused more pain than real damage, only a single drop of blood collected on his brown skin. "Do not forget this," she hissed.

"Sala," I breathed. "Let her go."

Then next thing I knew, Sala was close to me, too close. I could feel her breath on my lips as she spoke. "Kathalita and I need to have a chat, do you mind if I borrow her for a little while?" I felt the need to get away, but I was trapped between my enemy and the cave wall behind me. I wanted to wring Sala's throat until she let Rodwen go, but that'd only hurt Kathy when she did come back, and get us nowhere. I couldn't decide on my next move, and said nothing. The others were more stunned than I was, probably because I had seen and dealt with Sala before. Her red eyes sang of victory, and those damned lips curved in a triumphant smile.

"Thought not." And then, with her swift, lithe movements, was gone.

_Where are we going? _The desert sped away under us, the blazing sun must have felt amazing on my skin.

_As far from the others as possible._

_Why? _The only tactic that worked with my dark side is patience and going along with her plans- to a reasonable extent.

_Because we need to talk. You have got to get over this self-hatred. Gandora's number was up._

_I could have stopped them!_

_No, Kathalita, you couldn't have. Stop blaming yourself. _I didn't answer. _We're not going back until you get over this._

I mentally sighed. _Blaming myself is my way of coping._

_Get over it. Even if you had resulted to raw power you couldn't have done anything. _Sala returned.

"That was Sala just now, wasn't it?" Kryz asked me, fear lining her voice and eyes. I nodded, waking up from the trance that bitch had left me in.

"I thought the princess said she was free of Sala," Kels asked, her statement demanding an answer. I shook my head and moved to sit beside the three others.

"She said she didn't need the necklace anymore, which is true. Her own strength should be enough now to overcome Sala. But she won't be free of her until the necklace is whole." They looked at me expectantly. I sighed, knowing how long the explanation was. "Rodwen and Sala are parallels, but at the same time Yin and Yang."

Now we were speeding along the mountain rage bordering the desert. _Please don't speak of that monster so lightly._

_Why not? You think I've forgotten the one and only time you resorted to it?_

The full moon hangs directly overhead. My claws are stained red. The iron taste of blood fuels the desire that forces me onward, ever onward, to my next shelter, next victim.

"Sala and Kathy share the warriors spirit, disregard for rules, and hatred of all things fragile and afraid, even though they are both so easily broken."

I shudder.

_If I recall, that was the one and only time you were thankful I could gain control._

If I had my body, I would nod. It was true. The fearful raw power of animal instinct had been the only way I had survived that span of time between cage and Raistlin. That was another thing I had trouble coping with-

I was a monster, in any sense of the word.

"But they couldn't be more different, all the same. Sala's entire purpose is to destroy. She is the embodiment of evil within the Air element. Luna, her twin, as you might have guessed, is the polar opposite. There is no purer light among their people. Kathy..." I paused, searching for the words. Wondering if my explaination would alter the way they saw her, and realizing that if there was ever a time to change that, it would have to be now, while all truths were being told.

_Only at the very base of your being, _Sala argued. _Even as the natural top predator, you have a concience, a mind, a choice. You were depraved of all the things keeping you as civilized as you had been. It was natural to return to instinct._

I took a deep breath. "Kathy is more like the element itself. Her balance is almost perfect on the line between light and darkness. Because of this, there's nothing closer to the wind than her soul, her fighting spirit. The connection between her and her element is... unique. All elementals are natural indicators, in a sense. If there's something out of whack with their element, they know because their bodies react violently. But I've never seen an element react in the same way to it's elemental, other than the influence Rodwen has on the winds. Sometimes I truly think that if the wind wanted to carry her away with it, it could, just as Sala has stolen her from us now."

My aunt's words were soothing to the tempest within my mind, and I slowly accepted what she said. Relief flooded my soul as her words rang true.

We banked hard to turn around, and flew slowly back on updrafts as my teacher coached me on the last three lessons I should ever receive from her.

"Rodwen doesn't want the role of princess because she fears it will alienate her from that which she loves most- her people, the wind, and the four of us. She doesn't want things to change."

"Well, of course they'll change!" Kels retorted. "Regardless of whether she wants it or not, she IS a princess. And she'll always be above us because of it."

"Don't you see that's not what she wants at all? She just wants to be normal, accepted. Not some freak shut up in a castle, being told what to do all the time and put on display for the public eye. It would distance her from everyone she cares about, and she fears that even the air with which she is so in-tune would think her foreign."

"And that's just what will happen now," Kryz said calmly and with convincing certainty. "Because that is now the part she is to play."

"I suggest we get some sleep," Clay cut in. I sensed that he was generally the peacekeeper, and was trying to keep a fight from breaking out. I couldn't argue that I wasn't tired, it had been a long night and an exhausting morning. Kels picked a corner of the cave to curl up in, Clay and Kryz did the same. I just lay down on the floor where I was, not caring in the slightest.

I slowly woke up. I saw that Kathy came back and was currently using my chest as a pillow. I smiled affectionately at her serene sleeping face and kissed her forehead. She shifted in her sleep and murmered something inaudible. I wrapped my arms around her, careful not to wake her, and buried my face in her hair. But even as the familiar warmth of love overflowed from my heart, I felt a twinge of sadness. We were so close, but she had never seemed further from my reach. As much as I hated to even think it, Kryz was right. Soon she would go back to her father and live the life he chose for her.

And even though I knew there were worse things to worry about, I couldn't chase away one thought: She would have suitors. The thought disgusted me- how dare any such mongrel so much as touch her? My heart ripped open at the thought that maybe she wouldn't have a choice in such a matter. A low growl grew in my throat.

_It's alright, love._ I could hear her voice as clearly as if she had spoken.

_I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you._

_You didn't. _She reassured me. _Please don't torture yourself in this way. _A healing warmness sealed up the hole in my chest that the awful thoughts had caused. _You haven't lost me._

_Please don't let me, _I begged as I looked into those gray eyes, as gray as the future I forsaw. She gave me an unreadable look before pressing her lips firmly to mine.

_You really think you could? Or that I'd even let you? _She asked. I couldn't answer, still caught in the warm pressure of her kiss. Suddenly desperate, I pulled her closer to me, kissing right back, only to become immediately and intently aware of three pairs of invisible, disapproving eyes watching from the shadows.

"Ah-HEM," Kels said, rather loudly, from her corner. "The PRINCESS should be UP by now. Wouldn't you AGREE, KRYZ?"

"Yes, INDEED, Kelsey. SLEEPING like a bear SHOULDN'T be in her _**REPUTATION**_." This last word was extremely emphasized. I got the point and pulled back from her, regretting it instantly as she slipped from my embrace, agile as a nymph, and rushed over to take what was to become her daily beating from her "sisters". But my thoughts lingered, and I silently prayed that it would not be the last kiss, and that the next such moment might be free of prying eyes.

"YOU STUPID, RECKLESS, FOOLHARDY, LOVESICK IDIOT!" At each word, Kelsey was bopping me on the head. She could have been hitting worse. I suppose she figured if she did any real damage she might regret it later. I smirked at the irony, though. "HE'S NOT A PRINCE OR A KNIGHT! WHAT ON EARTH WILL YOUR FATHER THINK?" This was going too far. I grabbed my friend's wrist and glared meaningfully into her eyes. Then I let her go and walked outside.

I leaned against the mountain, gazing up at the stars. Kels seemed to think that it was only possible for me to love a prince or a knight- what she didn't realize was that he is both to me, the one who holds my heart. I giggled and blushed when I realized he was listening in on my mental soliloquy. Kage was just on the other side of the wall, the cool rock of the mountain seperating us. So close, yet so far...

Suddenly high-power wind came from nowhere, and the four voices of each wind was...

Screaming. So loud and fast that I couldn't understand them. And they were pulling at me, toward the nearby cliff, toward...

Back toward the castle.

Now if you're one of those people who thinks the wind can only blow, you're sadly mistaken. It can pull with as much force as it can push. And now it almost dragged me off the cliff. I had never seen them this worked up before, so it took me a minute to realize what was happening. Suddenly I was in the air, hovering just off the lip of the cliff.

"Sere... sere, nin malos..." Peace, peace, my friends, I soothed. Slowly they calmed and rubbed against my wings as cats do their owners. "Mana tarsas tye na?" What troubles you so?

"Onore," they started to pull me again, all four voices for the first time speaking as one. "Onore, tul, tultyelca cenar!" something was very, very wrong indeed. They never referred to me as "big sister" before, I was the little one. And I couldn't understand why they were so insistant on me seeing what was the matter, instead of telling me. I nodded, and was instantly gliding across the desert at an unbelievable speed.

I heard it before I saw it.

In every rightly-made castle, there is a set of bells (rather gothic, really, but still cool.) In any case, in Lumes Ulaire (Time's Ghost, as it's commonly known Wood nymphs- overly poetic things) has 25 bells total, but one of them, the deepest one, is never to be rung except in times of peril- it's an alarm, a cry for help.

And I heard it. Even though the citadel was merely a black blip on the horizon, I heard it. An echo from a nightmare, it rang, reflected, and barely faded before it rang again. I sped up- and there they were. My people. Each was carrying fire, in any way they could. Fire elementals breathed it into the air, earth rose magma from the sand, and the wood and air... I chocked on a scream as I realized the wood nymphs were on fire, the other air creatures also lit and struggling like tortured angels. Their flaming bodies howled in pain. I heard the cries of my family below as they begged for deliverance from God. And there, standing at the head of his gruesome army, stood Raistlin, his gold-tinted skin gleaming, golden eyes shining wickedly in the half-light.

With the one shred of reason I had left, I threw all my energy into flying. Where didn't matter- only getting away. Before I knew what was happening, I was hiding, safe in the bell tower.And screaming with such a shriek that had never been heard. If the bell hadn't been drowning me out, I would swear my friends on the cliff, hundreds of miles away, could hear me. When I had calmed down, I looked up to find the mysterious bell ringer.

It was a merman, and he couldn't have been any older than 10. Poor kid, his tail was drying up every second, but he held onto the rope for dear life, using all the power of his twig arms to swing the massive alarm. It was the sight of his determination more than anything else that brought me to my senses- here he was, putting all his faith that if he kept calling, help would come. And help was here, I realized. I stood and stopped his dizzying journey up and down the rope, motioning for him to climb on my back. His brown eyes showed trust I didn't deserve as he nodded and gripped the front edges of my wings with all his might- and in a moment, we were airborne.

First I stopped to leave him with his kindred in Mirror Lake. There, all the water elements were gathered, looking about themselves fearfully. They had been left behind because fire rejected them, but they still feared Raistlin in his crazed state. Hell, I was scared of him, and here I was, ready to go and fight him, with more than just our lives on the line. The child dropped from his passenger seat, sighing in relief as his tail reached moisture again.

"Don't let us down," he said.

"I won't," I promised, "Or I'll die trying." He nodded, dead serious- but so was I. Again, I took to the skies, and set my sights on the mobile hell of my father's morbid procession.

"Please, God, let this work..." I muttered under my breath. I was coming in right over their heads at a disturbing rate, but if this worked... The idea was to come from behind Raist, barreling into him with such force that he was a good distance from the rest of us, putting his victims behind me and out of harms way.

Well, it worked a little too well. The wind from my wings put out every fire I flew over, and the others got caught in my backdraft, which meant I was basically riding on a wave of flame. Really, Raistlin got hit right between the shoulderblades with about half of his own trouble plus whatever momentum I had. I braked hard, taking his place at the frontlines as he careened forward, arms forward as if to catch himself. In fact, he did better than that, pulling a backhandspring to face us again.

"Well, so it's you, then?" he asked, almost casually.

"Yes."

"Come to join our ranks after all?"

"No."

"If you are not with us, you are against us."

"Funny, that's what I was about to say," and instantly it became aware to Raist whose side the masses were on. His eyes grew wide, and the ebony pupils shrank to pinpoints.

"Traitor," he spat, eyes narrowing.

"Stop stealing my lines," I shot back.

A low growl rose in his throat. "Well, then. Come out and fight." I merely nodded and tried to take a step forward. I say "try" because before I could get anywhere, Kelsey, Clay, Shadow, Kryz, and Luna came from nowhere and either did their best to hold me back or bar my way.

"Don't throw your life away like this!" Luna cried. Her face was wet with tears, her wings charred beyond recongnition, soot sticking to every square inch of skin. No, not even the tyrant's loyal wife was spared his cruelty.

"I'm not letting you get NEAR that dueling arena!" Clay boomed in my ear. My sisters made their point clear by twisting my wrists- not a lot of fun for a pianist. Shadow, also, didn't need words. He merely put his hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes- and those emotions spoke volumes all to themselves. I closed my eyes, hiding the storms and took a deep, cleansing breath.

"I'm sorry," I whispered before I disappeared.

For a moment, we were all too stunned to realize she was gone. I, however, knew exactly what was going on. Whirling around, I saw Kathy and Raistlin at a distance, standing almost 100 yards apart. As I watched, Raist began to glow with a gold light that chilled me to the bone, his figure hunched in a primal hunting position- knees bent slightly, arms free but tense. The bloodlust almost radiated off him.

Rodwen stood straight, tall, and perfectly still. A strong desert gust blew, kicking up sand and making her opponent's cloak billow, but not so much as her hair stirred. Her deep gray wings were tucked in close to her back, but even as I watched, they paled to a shimmering silver: but how could that be true? She couldn't change the color of her feathers, it distrubed her sometimes how that was beyond her. **Kathy!** I cried in my mind, but it was no use. The duel's magic-enforced rules had already taken effect and she was beyond me. I felt alone, shut out, and I knew the others felt the same. Maybe we weren't all attached to her like I am, but we all sensed the spell whispering, "Don't interfere."

Why? Why couldn't I help her? Why now, when she needed me most, was I not able to lend my love my strength? I took an involuntary step forward, and Clay held me back with one of his massive hands. Shaking his head, he whispered, "It's out of our hands now." Slowly, the black fingers of despair tightened around my throat. I panicked, sure that I'd never see the woman I loved again, never even have a chance to let her know how much she meant to me before she died...

I was deep within myself when I heard it. The song I knew too well, it played in my happier dreams. It sang of sorrow, but was so beautiful in it's flutelike voice that you could not be brought to tears. It is almost Native American in character, with the spirit of the stars and the sea. I had worked long, painstaking hours at my keyboard with different mixes, but had never been able to imitate it, its heavenly sound too perfect for my instrument, however advanced. Now I heard it, and I was not afraid, nay, I felt almost purified. As I slid into my pure form, I felt the wind permeate my skin- we were one in the same, my psyche, its power. I lifted my head high, and opening my eyes I saw my father, ready to kill me.

I stretched my wings wide and spiraled into the sky. His golden wings were soon flying in a fury toward me. I slid out of the way, hurling a fireball at him as he whirled. He caught it and sent it right back, following with a hail of his own. Using my wings as sheilds, they were soon aflame. As it was converted to Pheonixfire, I felt no pain, but was suddenly struck with an idea. I allowed him to strike as much as possible, deflecting some blasts, but transferring the magic to my wings, as a reserve. Closing my eyes, I could see the flames and lightning stretching beyond. We whirled and circled, each trying to find a weakness in the other. In one downbeat, I sliced at him, and he was soon tumbling to the dunes in his own conflagration. This soon stopped as the king screamed. He waited on the ground, his wings hanging like two sacks of useless meat at either side- the lightning had temporarily parilyzed them.

"Come at me, demon. Let us finish this!" he called. My wings spread wide, still ablaze, I felt much older, wiser. Could he not see? The dragons had come, as it was inevitable they would. They now stood between my battered family and our own personal battle, understanding what it was they were meant to do. The healers attended the worst off, others tried to calm down the histarical. We were not at war with them, not at all. We were at war with ourselves- with Raistlin. He continued to taunt from his position, and in anger I beat my wings downward, swiping the ground with all the power still with me.

The desert bloomed in the only way sand can- in flames. Raistlin was soon surrounded, and then enveloped, by fire and lightning, whipped up into a deadly tornado by his adversary. He howled as the fire ignored his orders, burning him until it could no longer resist his authority.

"I will not be defeated so easily, monster!" he declared, truly believing himself the hero.

"You think... that... was _easy_?" she asked, on one knee, breathing heavily. Slowly, she brought herself to stand. The power of the winds left her, but she managed to keep on her feet. He drew a blade from its scabbard at his waist. She opened wings and arms wide, as if to embrace the deathblow.

"You are not afraid to die? You would do so gladly for them?"

"Them? Us? Raistlin, look at them. They ARE us. What differences do you see?" And, indeed, he looked. He looked out among the crowd of souls that hid themselves as humans, but were creatures. Mysterious and known, beautiful and hideous, they held almost nothing in common but the ties of family. Be it by blood, friendship, or love, they were all connected, a part of one another. Even though they were practically strangers, the dragons indeed had already shown they meant no harm, had taken a place in the chain that bound them together as family.

As Raistlin stood, motionless, contemplating the events, the air danced in huge column-whirlwinds around the mountains lining the edges of the desert valley. The sound of a song rose in the echos, Native in origin, with the soul of the sea and the stars.

And Raistlin changed. The glow surrounding him disappeared. The mad look left his eyes, to be replaced by tears. "What have I done?" he asked to no one in particular, then answered himself. "Not what I did, but what did I almost do?" He threw the sword away in disgust.

The crowd rejoiced, and most headed for home. But one earth element barreled forward, crushing the heroine in a bear hug, her head squished by a noogie. "You did it, you crazy windbag! You did it!" He boomed.

"Clay..." she wheezed. "Chocking... not breathing..." He dropped her, only to be replaced by a much less violent hug. Kryz, as a naga, failed to break her spine, but the squeeze was enough for her to feel loved. The instant she let go, the other sister showed up.

"YOU CRAZY, BRAINLESS, THOUGHTLESS WARRIOR OF A BIRD!" This was accompanied by a firm whack on the head. Kath's face split in a smile.

"I love you too, sissy." She had barely finished the words before she was enveloped in another embrace, almost as crushing as Clay's.

"Don't you ever do that again..." Shadow's angry, tear-chocked voice whispered into her ear. "I thought I was going to lose you..." She hugged back, and slowly his fears eased.

"Alright, love," she whispered. "No more crazy daredevil solo fights for me."

"Good," he responded, and tried to kiss her. I use "tried" because as soon as their lips met, the other three forced them to get away from eachother.

"You have got a LOT to learn about being a princess..." Kelsey muttered and Kath just rolled her eyes.

-

At that moment, Raistlin was running to catch up to Luna. He could barely recognize her, her pale hair darkened by ash, her white wings burned black. She was walking with her head down to hide the tears trickling down her face, leaving light streaks on her soot-caked skin. Raistlin reached out and took her wrist. She stopped, though the rest of the crowd surged forward.

"My angel," he whispered. "You must hate me for how I've hurt you..." his voice cracked in near tears. Just then, Luna spun to face him, threw her arms around him, and allowed herself to cry full force into his chest. He held her as though he hadn't in years, drinking in the scent of her hair- under the ash, the same scent remained, as it always had. He whispered gently to her to calm her, speaking of his love, of her beauty, the promises he'd always kept never to leave her... Time was an illusion. Hours past in a few moments.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, the words muffled against his cloak.

"Why are you appologizing? I'm the one who nearly got us both killed or worse!"

"But I'm the one who's acting so weak, who's crying as though someone _did_ die..." Raist took her face in his hands and rested his forhead on hers.

"You're scared, and angry, and a thousand other terrible things. It's alright, love..." so saying, he kissed her with a gentleness that gave away every emotion he hid, every tear that went unseen. An instant later, they realized how far behind they'd fallen and ran off, hand in hand, to catch back up to the jubilent crowd.


	5. Princess Lessons

"Now, Exam Time

"Now, Exam Time! Cream or Ecru place cards with this china set? And sit up straight! Shoulders back! Don't tuck your hair behind your ears, you'll crease it! Don't you roll your eyes at me! Cream or Ecru?"

I sighed heavily, sinking back into my half-asleep slump, face resting on my left hand, that elbow holding up my weight on the desk Kels had forced me into. She insisted on giving me "princess lessons" because apparently I didn't know how to walk the walk, talk the talk, or even know such stupid things like how many of what kinds of flowers to add to an arrangement that looked fine to everyone but her. We were three days in and I already wanted to throw myself off the roof of the ginormous castle in human form.

"CREAM OR ECRUE?"

"Navy."

Kels plopped in front of me. "Kathalita, I don't believe you're even trying to pay attention to me."

"That's correct." Her face turned 15 shades of red and purple. That's red and purple collectively, not individually.

"Let's go over this again," she said, her patience obviously running short. "When you select place cards..." I tuned her out, watching a big, fat fly buzz around the room. I slowly pulled a hair tie out of my pocket, took aim, and... fired. Bulls eye. I killed it. Whoopee. All enthusiasm had left 2 days ago when Kels had tried to make me wear dresses each and every day. Not gonna happen, and getting angry would only worsen the matter.

"WOULD YOU LISTEN?!"

"No." She walked very quickly out the door.

"Come!" I followed, not really caring. Civil disobedience always had consequences. We walked down many flights of stairs to the first floor, out the back door and onto the plain where the new Earth settlement was being dug. The old had had a catastrophic cave in, but this new one was designed to last. My teacher picked up a shovel almost as tall as I was and handed it to me. "You will dig a hole five feet deep and five feet in diameter. Your shovel is your measuring stick. Get started." She turned to leave.

"What is this supposed to teach me?"

"Obedience!" she spun on her heel. "That you cannot disobey and expect to get away with it!" I just shrugged and took my first shovelful of dirt. "I just wonder how long you'll be able to take this," she added wickedly, "working like that in the hot sun."

"As long as you can try to teach me," I replied, "I can dig holes."

--

"Er..." I was feeling very uncomfortable indeed in Raistlin's private study. The ceiling stretched up 20 feet, the bookshelves covering each wall reaching just as far, and every available inch filled with books. The king was sitting behind a large oak desk, folding up his reading glasses.

"Ah, Shadow. Please, come. Sit down. We're all friends here. Nice haircut, by the way." Luna had hogtied me and given me a haircut while I was sleeping. My black hair was short, and it felt strange to me, though Rodwen and almost every other female in the castle couldn't keep their eyes off me now.

"Thank you sir," I said, taking a seat on the chair pushed in front of his Excellency. "May I ask why I am here?"

He nodded. "I understand you intend to protect my daughter." I nodded. "If you don't mind, I'd like another warrior to help you."

"I can take care of anything that tries to harm her. If the need should arise, I'd use my own body as a shield- you know that!" He nodded again.

"Don't take this personally, please. I'd just feel safer knowing that there are two of you." I nod, knowing there's more he's not saying. "Good. I was hoping we could get through this peacefully. Shadow, this is Victor," as he said this, a tall man walked into the light. He carried no weapon, but the way he walked suggested lethality, like a cobra. He wore a long black cloak instead of a shirt, leaving his well-toned torso completely exposed. His lower half, thank heaven, was more modest- slick black pants molding into almost clunky matching combat boots.

"Pleased to meet you," his voice was smoother, more suave than most men- he pulled a hand through his ebony hair, golden eyes sizing me up the same way I was him, white skin nearly glowing in the half-light.

"It's good to see you two are getting along so well," he said. _How clueless can he be?_ I thought.

_Raistlin? _I heard Rodwen ask in my mind.

_Yes._

_Pretty clueless, alright._

_Shouldn't you be paying attention to Kels?_

_Uh... Look out the window. Almost straight down. _I followed her directions and saw, 15 stories down, that crazy air elemental digging a hole that was already 2 feet deep.

_What are you doing?_

_What Kelsey told me to. Diggin to build some character. _

"Shadow? Something wrong?"

_Sorry, love. Have to run. Talk later, I promise._ "Nope. Everything's fine."

"Xak's an old friend of mine. How long's it been, now... 90 years?"

"That's about right, Raist. Haunting the belfries since 1918... er, something like that." He smiled at his forgetfulness and I saw them- the sharpened incisors, the fangs. Retracted now, but they could be a danger later. "And all on the vegetarian diet, too." This last bit confused me, but I glanced to Raistlin to show I understood: he was a vampire. This conversation had been set up in his head for the sole purpose of warning me.

"Well, you two have a lot to discuss. See you later." I escaped through the giant oak doors... and I don't use 'escaped' lightly.

For a while, Xak and I just walked down the hallway in silence- guys don't lapse right into conversation, you know. "So," I said, trying to kill the akward silence, "what's his deal? He knows full well I can protect her on my own." _You're pouting, _Rodwen chided.

"Well," he shot back, "It makes tactical sense. Two can work better than one, at night you can get some sleep (seeing as I don't need to), if one of us is secretly planning an assasination we can protect against eachother-"

"I would never-"

"Now, now," he waved a hand as if to calm a raging child, which only pssed me off even more. "You know that and I know that, but Raist doesn't seem to. And lets face it," he added, "he's not just looking at it from a tactical perspective."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, taking a defensive position. We were now on the ground level, heading towards the princess and her hole-digging punishment.

"Well, I assume you've been gaurding her at night?" I nod. "Just outside the room?"

"The window, actually."

He nodded. "Well, think of it like a father would." He glanced over and I must have been giving him a funny look because he went on explaining. "Just because you're a dragon doesn't mean you're not a man, Shadow."

It's a good thing Rodwen screamed and sped past us, Kelsey in pursuit at just the moment he finished or I might have killed that prettyboy on the spot.

--

I will admit I was screaming. Hell, I was screaming for good reason. I was running my very fastest, with Kelsey flying to catch up and catching up every second. The way I see it, I had good reason. Anyway, we went through the front entrance and sped by Shadow, who kept pace with me with that effortlessness of his.

"What's going on?" he asked as though Kels and I just weren't talking to eachother.

"Shetoldmetodigahole5feetdeepand5feetindiameter!" I spat, trying to reserve energy for running. "ApparentlyIdidittooquickandnowshe'smadasallHell!"

He nodded calmly. "So fly. You can fly faster than you can run, and you can run pretty damn fast." He looked behind us. "Though at this point I'd say your running speed isn't doing you much good." I didn't want to look, but muttered the spell that'd give me a glimpse through his eyes and panicked at the sight of Kels not even 2 feet behind me. My energy was dwindling.

"I can't fly!" I shrieked. He was halfway through asking 'Why not?' when I jumped to dodge Kels' claws, which ripped open my long, loose sleeve, revealing the seal Kels had drawn on my arm in henna to keep me from reverting to true form. The spiraling, rune-encrusted design stretched from just below my shoulder to just above my wrist. The force of Kels' claw-swipe had me spinning in the air like a windmill, arms outstretched to try to retain balance. She was coming up for a finishing blow just as I landed, and I began jumping off the walls up, up, and up through the castle. I kept without a pattern, the random bursts of energy confusing my pursuer. I was full aware that we were gathering the attention of anyone in sight or hearing distance, but right then, I didn't care.

Then I reached the ceiling, 30 stories up from the floor, and there was nowhere else to go. I ran around the edges, keeping up speed and momentum to fight gravity, while I considered my options. Kels didn't give em to me as she spat a fireball in my way, causing me to break stride and fall- and fall I did. Down and down and down. I was parylized, there was nothing I could do. I could only think over and over, _I'm going to die. _A black dart passed me on the way down, slamming into Kels, hidering her progress.

And then suddenly I wasn't falling at all and swallowed in warmth. _How many times do I have to tell you,_ Kage's voice asked in my mind, _before you believe that I'm not about to let you get hurt? _I smiled and relaxed in his arms and we slowly glided to the polished tile below. Kels was being dragged out of the air by the weight of the black dart, which I now saw was some form of warrior, though he carried no weapon.

"Let's get you to Weevil and see if he can remove this," Shadow murmured, fingertips tracing the length of Kels' seal on my arm. I inwardly groaned- not Weevil. Weevil had an obsession with bugs... and spiders in particular. In short, we don't really see eye to eye. However, I allowed him to lead me off to Weevil's lurk of choice.

--

Rodwen was obviously struggling to keep calm as we entered the hollow tree that was Weevil's home. Insects of every shape, color, and sort covered the inside like wallpaper. Weevil sat in the center, spiders crawling all over his 12-year-old body, a giant wolf spider tangled in his green bowl-cut hair. When he stood, all but the wolf spider scattered, a handful coming toward us, causing Rodwen to cringe close to me.

"Kathalita! What a pleasant surprise! You of course remember Penelope," he said, gently removing the spider from his hair and kissing it before holding it out to us. "Say hello, Penelope, be a good hostess." And, much to Xak's, but not my or Rodwen's, surprise, the monstrosity did indeed bow toward us. Weevil then placed his beloved back on his head. "So, what can I do for you?"

"Kels sealed up my true form with a henna tattoo. I was hoping you could help, seeing as that's your jurisdiction." Her voice was quavering, I put my arm around her.

"I know how scary it is not to be able to be yourself. Of course I'll help! Let me see..." His fingers traced the design, his eyes filled with concentration. His eyes and the henna began to glow a bright green, and Kathy flinched. "This will only hurt a little, princess." She braced herself.

Black henna exploded from her arm, forming a rope of dye that coiled at Weevil's feet. The seal unraveled from Kath's wrist toward her shoulder. Once it was gone entirely, Weevil dropped her arm and it hung limp at her side. "It'll be numb for awile," Weevil explained. "Give it an hour and it'll be fine."

"Thank you," Kath murmured, giving her friend a one-armed hug before stumbling out the entrance.

"She'll be out of it for a bit more than two hours. It'll be best to take her back to her room and let her rest." I nodded.

"Thanks, Weevil. She really needs that for self-protection purposes." He nodded.

"Anytime. Maybe eventually she'll come to love spiders as a return gift." _Don't hold your breath,_ I thought, following Xak and Kathy back to the castle, up 17 flights of stairs to Kathy's room. Once inside the door, she climbed into bed and was out like a light, leaving me to deal with Xak.

"Alright. Now's as good a time as any to get our posts in order," that silver voice determined, closing the door to keep the conversation in the hallway where we stood. "One of us should take the door, and the other the window. That way, we cover both entrances to the room."

"What if the attacker materializes in the room?"

"Then we'll have to rely on our ears."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to be inside?"

"You forget part of the reason I am here. If one of us was in the room, it only worsens the lady's already compromised sleeping position." I growled.

"I don't appreciate your innuendo and accusations, Victor."

"And I don't appreciate your denial of the simple fact that it's what boys your age are preoccupied with."

"Not me. I'm not like them."

"I still don't trust you to do what's best for her."

"And I don't trust you in the slightest."

"Good," he said, brightening up. "Then we're in agreement. I'll take the door and you can handle the window." I nodded, unable to do anything else and tired of fighting for the day. I reopened the door to get to my post, closing it behind me softly so as not to wake her. Not that it would have mattered, she was out cold. I clambered out the window to my post on the balcony.

_--_

I don't remember falling asleep, really. I just remember waking up and opening my eyes to two huge purple ones with gold streaks midway through them. I jumped, letting off a little shriek, and Tiba jumped off my chest.

"Sorry," the dragon-kitty mewed, hovering on it's little wings. It's huge, almost batlike ears twitched as Xak rushed into the room, ready to fight. I couldn't help it, the sight was too hilarious. All-serious Xak faces the cutest of Kage's pets as a threat.

"What's so funny?!" he demanded.

"Nothing's the matter, Tiba just startled me. You know how cats sometimes sleep on their masters and scare them half to death? Well, I'm not his owner, per se, but same basic principle." The expression on his face was even more hilarious and I laughed HARDER. Suddenly stopping, as was my way, I sprung out of bed and jumped out the window, off the balcony. I heard Xak's cries of alarm, and Shadow's own laughter as Tiba clued him in. I spread my wings wide, broke my fall, and glided calmly up back to my gaurds, the one who didn't know me very well at all was red in the face- the other was rolling around in laughter.

"WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?" Xak demanded when I came into view.

"Look," I stated, "Raist said I had to let you follow me around, had to deal with you being all overbearing protective and stuff. Fine. He didn't specify that I couldn't put you through Hell."

"It was, however, implied," he insisted.

"Whatever. Look, I've got three days of flying to catch up on, so if you don't mind finding something to entertain yourselves with, I'll be back in an hour."

"YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITHOUT US!" the little bitch screamed, jumping to his feet.

"Fine then," I dared. "Follow me." So saying, I flew off, knowing full well he couldn't.

--

"ARE YOU INSANE? WHY ARE YOU JUST SITTING THERE? TURN INTO YOUR DRAGON FORM AND LET'S GO!"

"She'll be fine for an hour."

"THAT'S ONE HOUR THAT WE AREN'T THERE TO HELP HER!"

"That's one hour she has doing one of the things she does best. Did you know her speed record is Mach 5? She's a wonderful warrior if you'd give her the chance. Not to mention whenever she goes for flights like this she's never alone- the wind is a live thing that'd protect her even better than the both of us."

"Oh, yeah. Some moving air are really reassuring me." I sighed. He obviously wasn't going to be swayed to believe that Rodwen was going to be alright.

"Look, you know I love her, don't you?"

"Yeah, so much you'll ignore rules of etiquette."

"Meaning?"

"The courtship stages. You completely ignore them. Why do you think the men here seem to ignore your relationship?"

"Cuz they're dickheads?" My mind wandered to several asses hitting on her over the past few days, and held back a smile at how she turned each one down in trademark Kathy style.

"Because, by their rules, you don't HAVE a relationship with her."

"What? How do you justify that?"

"You have to ask her father permission to court her, and he specifies the rules from there. This is a very old-world sort of place, Shadow. You have to play by old-world rules. Anyway, we're off topic. You were saying 'you know I love her'…?" I nodded.

"So much that if she was in danger I would follow her. She'll be fine." He nodded.

"Alright, then." We just sat there for about 15 minutes, staring out into the horizon before he suggested that we spar and get to know each other's abilities. I liked the sound of that. We got to the ground and put magic dullers on our weapons- my darkblade and his fists. We whirled and swung at each other, putting each other to the limits of our strength. We paused in stances 8 or 9 feet apart when Rodwen came back from her flight.

"I fight winner," she called as she landed and sat on the grass.

"That's not much of a fight," Xak noted, "for the winner."

"Fine," Kathy agreed. "I'll fight the winner- and Xak." I took the hint and slammed my katana to his porcelain-white throat. His impervious, powerful hand came up as a defensive move an instant too soon for my victory, and it threw me across the clearing. I healed the huge bruise in my side even as Rodwen rushed over and dove to her knees beside me. "Are you alright!?"

"Oh, I'm dying!" I moaned theatrically. She smiled.

"Do you have a death wish?" An idea struck me and I smiled back.

"Please, sweet angel, let my last breath be a final kiss." A slight blush crept to her face and she bent forward, her lips meeting mine. The sun finished setting as she stood to face Xak.

"Alright, assassin," she said, blunting her twin swords of light and darkness. "You've killed my knight," she held Darkness in her left hand, twirling it and getting used to it's weight, the red runes glowing on it's hilt in the half-light. "And now you'll have to fight me." She tested Light in her right in the same fashion as the moon's rising rays glinted off it's near-white steel. "You think I can't take care of myself," the swords are real pieces of work. Shaped like katanas, though a bit wider, very lightweight, molded from watersteel- a nearly unbreakable weapon material that smashes most other swords like balsa wood (in actual combat of course)- they curved slightly, nearly undetectably, but just enough to accommodate her fighting style. "And now," she noted, sliding into her stance, "you shall pay the price of your incompetence."

He lunged at her, bringing his fist down on what should have been her head. Actually, it was an afterimage. The real warrior had slid 180° and took swipes of her own down his backbone toward his head. Light wasn't able to cut him due to the magical dullers, but it did slice that ridiculous cape in half. Xak called time while he peeled the remains of the shirt replacement off.

"Wow, you might have to actually get dressed tomorrow," I taunted from the sidelines.

"And keep all this from the ladies?" he shot back, strutting around like a runway model.

--

Unfortunately for Kage, he IS pretty good looking. Unfortunately for me, he can fight like hell. As soon as his Narcissus moment was over, the sparring went on for another hour without either of us gaining any leverage on the other. I threw everything I had at him and it didn't even phase him until I made a dodge and slice maneuver that sent him sprawling on the ground. I tapped my swords to his throat.

"Kill," I called. "The assassin's dead." I sheathed my weapons, breathing heavily.

"You're a worthy opponent," the guard admitted from the ground. I nodded and started back to the castle- it was late. "She's not typical, is she?" I heard him ask Kage as I spread my wings to reach my room the easy way.

"No," he replied. "She's one of a kind." _Thanks love,_ I thought, gliding up to my balcony. I tied back my hair as I waited, but I didn't have to wait long. Soon Kage joined me. "What's up?" he asked, amethyst eyes questioning.

"Love, what's wrong? It doesn't take a genius so see that there's something bothering you." He looked out at the night sky and sighed.

"It was… brought to my attention today that there are rules of courtship for you, princess." I nodded; I had known this was coming at some point. "And I feel that I must follow them."

"Whatever happened to the Shadow I know, who would say, 'screw the rules'?" He turned then, pulled me close to him and kissed me- but it was a desperate kiss, and it scared me. There was too much fear, as though he thought we only had so much time left to us.

"He's still here," he whispered, lips brushing mine as he spoke. "He just doesn't want to lose you."

"He won't," I replied. "I promised him he wouldn't." The dragon then looked deep into my eyes, smiling sadly as though he was thinking of something that hadn't yet crossed my mind.

"Your father will only acknowledge our love if I go about this properly."

"No one else's opinion matters, this is a love between us and only us."

"His opinion can change 'happily ever after' into "goodbye' they say 'forever"." My heart gave a painful jolt- I didn't want that at all. His arms wrapped around me. "I love you too much to let that happen, Kathy. Far too much." I hugged him tightly, holding back the tears that had formed at his previous statement.

"I love you too," I whispered, my words muffled against his chest. "Too much." Shadow loosened his hold on me in order to kiss me again, but this one was warmer and more heartfelt.

"There's no such thing as too much," he murmured. "It's late, you should get some rest." I nodded and pulled away reluctantly- who knew when the next time he could hold me would be? I turned and went back to my room through the large gothic window and curled up on my soft bed, pulling the covers over my head.

It rained that night, a dull gray rain.

--

It didn't rain on me, though. It rained everywhere else, but not my little spot on her balcony. The rain mirrored how I felt- dismal. Not only was I going to conform to someone else's rules, but I felt awful about letting her go so quickly: somehow, two kisses didn't seem like enough for what we were going to be put through.

The next day, my fears were confirmed when I went to ask Raistlin for his permission. The vampire and Kathy waited out in the hallway, straining their ears to hear.

"Ah, Shadow, my boy. Come in, come in. What can I do for you?"

"Just one thing, sir." He looked at me expectantly with his ancient golden eyes and I took a deep breath. "I wish to date Kathy, in the proper fashion of your people." He seemed stunned.

"I wasn't expecting you to come and ask," the king admitted. He opened a drawer at his desk and lifted a red velvet pouch out of it. "This is truthseeing powder," he explained as he dusted his eyes with the contents- a fine red sand. "It's not that I don't trust you- I just can't afford to take chances with my daughter. Now," he said while fixing his eyes on mine, "your intentions toward her are pure?"

"Yes, sir. I'd never hurt her." This earned me a nod, though he never took his focus from my eyes.

"And you blindly accept to any rules I may pass on your courtship?"

"Yes." Another nod.

"She really means that much to you?"

"I love her!"

Raistlin sat there a moment, blinking. "Very well, then. Let's go over the regulations you are to follow."

--

"Princess," Kels said, plopping down at the edge of my newest 10-by-10 hole. "Let's come to a compromise. I'll only teach you what you need to know to get through Raist and Luna's anniversary ball if you'll pay attention and no more."

"Deal," I agreed.

And so we went on to other lessons: I destroyed my entrances. Ran away from my exits. Tripped in high heels. Stumbled in dresses. Attempted dancing, and shrieked in horror at dancing in high heels.

--

"Shadow," Kelsey said as she approached me, "may I have a word?"

"Certainly."

"Look," she started as we turned away from Kathy attempting helplessly to hobble around in heels. "Part of this whole thing is that she doesn't believe she can do it. I want to try the dancing bit again, and I know she'll do better if you'll lead her."

"But-" Raistlin had ordered me not to even try it until the ball in a month and a half.

"Raist will understand. If you're leading her, she'll have a greater confidence and that confidence will spread to the rest of these lessons."

"But-"

"She'll relax and that'll help too."

"Relax?!"

"She trusts you." I couldn't fight anymore. I went with Kels back to Kathy, who had given up and was tying her white runners back on. "Let's give dancing one more try with a real guy." Rodwen looked at me skeptically- I hadn't had the chance to explain the rules restricting everything down to the way I adressed her. I glanced at Kels worriedly to express that I wasn't sure this was okay with Raist's plan. She nodded once to show she understood. Kels took that nod as a "yes, let's get it over with" and stood back to watch the festivities, starting the music.

I swore in my head at her. Stupid, good-for-nothing... I took a breath to calm down. Holding out my hand, I asked, "May I have this dance?" She took my hand, blushing slightly- this was way out of her comfort zone.

"Certainly." I bowed and she mock-curtsied (how can you curtsy in jeans?), and after a moment we were twirling across the floor. Now, I'm not going to deny that she tripped a couple of times (and even saying just that is giving her a LOT of credit), but she did fairly well for someone who decapitated the mannequin Kels had her practice with. She was blushing bright red when the music died and we stopped.

"THAT WAS GREAT!" Kels screamed. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE A LOST CAUSE!"

"Gee thanks, sissy," she grumbled.

--

After that, I'm not sure what happened. It was like I could do anything I put my head to. I strolled in high heels, twirled like I'd danced all my life, wore a dress like there was nothing else (and there wasn't, Kels had taken my pants hostage).

I still dreaded the ball like it was my execution, and in a way it was going to be.

Anyway, that date loomed near and it seemed like Shadow was drifting away from me. He only addressed me as 'princess' which he already knew I hated and he wouldn't come within 5 feet of me. It hurt, but I knew he was only following Raist's orders- at least, that's what I kept telling myself.

--

After sissy's lessons everyday, I would sit out in the garden and sketch or read. Usually, I was left alone, but one day Xak joined me on the bench.

"What're you doing?" He asked.

"Reading," I replied in my best 'What's it to you?' voice. He just nodded, his golden eyes not lifting from mine. We started to talk, my book forgotten. It was unbelievable how much we had in common, how easy it was to talk to him. When I mentioned where I had my main training as a child, he interrupted for the first time.

"No way!" he exclaimed, "Me too! We must have been there at about the same time, too- I go back every 20 years to see if they've learned anything new."

I scrunched up my face and thought hard, really hard. A single memory zapped through my head...

_Rough hands snatch me from behind and hold me fast. A carefully placed elbow frees me from his grip and a fireball to his head gives me enough time to escape- and illuminates his face: Pale skin, slick black hair, and eyes, nearly black, that looked at me like I was water to a man wandering the desert for years and somehow survived._

I suddenly realized I had run away from him and was hiding behind a tree. My old enemy came closer and closer and I didn't move... I couldn't. I tried to back away but was cornered. When he was so close I could hear him breathing, he bent to whisper in my ear.

"Your blood still tempts me," he confessed darkly, "almost as much as your lips." And before I knew what was happening, he kissed me. For a moment my heart stopped beating and then- he was gone, left me there to blush like an idiot.

--

--

It was finally here, the dance. Kathy slipped in, almost unnoticed, as Raistlin greeted the guests and thanked them for coming. Almost the entire castle of elementals, dragons, and elves were there. When I say that the princess was almost unnoticed, I mean that no one made note of her arrival, but the instant the music started, she was swamped by men asking her to dance. Several said something to her while they danced, and she shot back something that sent them heading for the hills. After one waltz ended, she stepped off to the side, and I started toward her to ask for the next dance when I was shoved into the wall by a tall blonde elf.

"Step aside," he growled. "A half breed like you doesn't deserve her." I growled menacingly. I was a half breed, and I didn't mind it. But when this guy said it, it pissed me off to no end.

"In case you haven't noticed," I spat, "she's a half breed too."

"How dare you!" he exclaimed, hurrying over. "My lady, your radiance shines like a star this evening. May I have this dance?"

"When Hell freezes over, asswipe." Both me and the elf jumped at the seemingly-uncalled-for insult, and there was a small circle of silence around the three of us. "I've seen the way you look at me and the way you treat my guard. You will learn your place or I will put you there."

"You did not just say that," he threatened.

"I see," she replied before her knee connected with his crotch. I almost felt sorry for him as the small sonic boom made my ears pop. Her elbow was in his stomach before I could blink. "Did I say it now?" He crumpled into a ball on the ground and crawled away in agony.

Rodwen leaned back against the cold stone and sighed sadly. I took a moment to look, I'll admit. Her soft brown hair tumbled to her shoulders. Kels had picked out a special dress for her- it was floor-length, the neckline following her collarbone. It's midnight blue satin hugged her figure. Damn, Kels knew what she was doing... She sighed again, and in that instant I wanted nothing more than to hold her, even if it was against Raistlin's wishes.

"May I have this dance?" I asked, extending my hand and hating how my voice quavered.

--

I glanced over and... how am I supposed to describe how he looked in that suit I knew he felt stupid in? Handsome? Dashing? Clichés, but I can't seem to come up with anything better. He carried himself like he owned the place, like even if I said no the next girl to appear WOULD dance with him (and unfortunately I knew this to be the case), but there was a look in his eyes, a slight doppleganger of fear that I _would_ refuse and turn him away.

_Good grief, Shadow, _I thought at him, even though I knew our telepathy had been stopped per my father's orders, _you should know me better than that..._

"Of course," I said softly aloud, giving him my hand. He ran his thumb over the knuckles and smiled at me- a smile that had something behind it that thanks to daddy dearest's wish, I could not hear. He tugged me toward the dance floor and I followed feeling a little foolish as the music began.

--

They looked so peaceful, the princess and her knight- finally back where each belonged, in the other's arms. It didn't take an idiot to see she wasn't gonna dance with anyone else the rest of the night, she was so happy now.

I was sulking in the corner, and, I'll admit, green with envy. How did she end up with the man of her dreams, her! She was so insecure, she could only do a few things well and sucked at everything else! How did she even deserve someone who loved her beyond reason?!

My reverie was broken by a shadow falling over my face. I looked up to see that wretched vampire holding his hand out to me.

"May I have this dance?" that awful smooth voice asked pleasantly.

"Yes," I answered, surprised at myself. In a moment, we were twirling across the floor. As the music ended, I let myself get pulled off the floor.

"If you're not happy here, why do you stay?" he asked. How had he known I was miserable at a party I should have been psyched about?

"To make sure her-highness-in-training doesn't run away," I lied casually.

"Have a little faith..." he murmered into my ear.

Xak had an arm around my waist and pulled me out a side door, toward the gardens. I went without protest. We wandered about, talking about anything and everything except what had happened the last time we had been there.

He insisted on walking me back to my room, and just as I could see the entry, he pinned me to the wall and pressed his lips to mine. I pushed him away, but couldn't manage to get free, he was too strong.

"We shouldn't," I said, knowing what he wanted.

"Why not?"

"Why should it matter? Let me go!"

"If you really wanted me to, you'd make me..."

--

It was somewhere after one in the morning by the time Raist let me escape his party, giggling as though I was drunk. I was happy to the point of giddyness, which seemed to both amuse and slightly disturb my escort.

"Alright, how badly was the punch spiked?" This only brought me out in more histarical giggles, though. I hadn't touched the punch, being the one to insist that one of us had to be sober or Raist'd throw a fit.

"Shadow," I eventually got out, "careful, someone might think you care." This seemed to sting him, and I automatically regretted saying it.

"Kathy, I-" he started, but I put a finger over his lips, conspicuously glancing over his shoulder. He nodded to show he understood: we weren't alone. We walked the rest of the way up to a hallway near my room, where I was sure our second shadow couldn't follow. Kage knew the point at which I had soundproofed the tower and held me tightly. I hugged him back for dear life, both happy and a little scard that he seemed to have come out of his Raist-induced shell.

"Rodwen," he murmered into my hair, "it hurt so much to hurt you..." I could hear in his voice that he meant it, that he couldn't stand what he'd done. "I love you."

"I love you too," I returned, and I meant every word- his distance had been murder for me. For awile we just stayed there, holding eachother as if afraid to let go, afraid to let the other drift away again. Then he pulled just far enough away to look into my eyes.

"Rodwen," he whispered, as though just saying my name was relief from a self-induced pain, "may I..." he blushed and faltered, "may I kiss you?" Despite myself, I found a blush on my own face as well.

"Do you love me?" I asked, and he gave me a look I couldn't read. "_You_ don't have to ask, Kage. You never have to ask..."

He didn't have to be told twice, and didn't hold back.

"She talked you into lip gloss?" he asked when we stopped to breathe. I blushed- I had forgotten.

"You like it?"

"Maybe..." he whispered, already coming back for more.

We whispered goodnight some time later, feeling lighter hearted, but gloomy still that we had to part.

And so, we found ourselves called to Raist's study the following morning. I personally was scared out of my mind, but Shadow seemed calmer than I'd ever known him to be: and I knew it was all for my benefit.

He went in first, but Raist surprised me by asking me to sit in on their talk. I stood in the farthest corner, in the shadows, as Raist spoke:

"I'm sure both of you think I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions you don't want to answer and use this," he said, pulling the bag of truthseeing powder out of his desk. "But that's not going to happen. In fact, I'm very proud of both of you, able to stay seperated as you were for as long as you were," at this, he smirked at Shadow, who was clearly about to sock him across the face if he didn't get to the point. "I'm removing most of the restrictions on your relationship. The only one I'll leave standing is the one that if you break, I'll take credit for your death." I flinched, sure that Kage would explode under this umpteenth accusation.

"I'd never hurt her," he defended with such steadfast emotion that even the most suspicious person would believe him, trust him.

"I know," Raist said, "but I can't take chances on my daughter. Speaking of whom..." he turned to me. "Would you come here, Kathalita?" I nodded and walked forward, and Kage took my place in the corner. "I have been watching your lessons, regardless of whatever you think." I flinched, sure I was in immense trouble. "It seems to me that you will never be a proper princess," I smiled, then scrubbed it off my face at my father's scowl. I stood silent and terrified as his golden eyes looked straight through me. And suddenly his face softened. "So I'm letting you go back to your home, the one that has sat empty since you came here."

My breath caught in my throat- we were going home?

Raist stood and moved out from behind his desk. He rested one sun-bronzed hand on my head as he whispered:

"Fly free, spirit who could not be broken."

He had hardly finished speaking before Clay burst into the room, his sleek naga form at the window in seconds. "My lord," he gasped. "I'm sorry for the intrusion, but look- out on the horizon."

We looked- but clearly they were moving quickly, for now we could clearly see the army of monsters headed straight for us across the green expansive fields, lead by a great shadow with curled horns, red eyes, and long arms ending in grasping fingers. On it's shoulder rode a boy, not much older than me by the look of him, with shaggy white hair, dressed in a white suit the sort of which hadn't been seen since the old days on the moon. He had pale skin and black eyes, and on the back of his right hand was a birthmark- a perfect black crecent moon.

"Jamal..."

--

**Redwingblackbird:** dundunDUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

**Kels:** shudders in fear

**Kathy:** CAN'T YOU EVER JUST _**FINISH**_ ANYTHING?!

**Redwingblackbird:** Nope! XD


	6. Time Rift

Redwingblackbird: And now, the chapter to end it all

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bryan Adams' "Brother Under the Sun" or Alan Jackson & Jimmy Buffet's "Five O'Clock Somewhere". I just used them to add emphasis.**

**Redwingblackbird:** And now, the chapter to end it all.

**Kath:** Finally...

**Redwingblackbird:** Shut up. You're the most agravating character of all of them!

**Kath:** Why?

**Redwingblackbird:** Because your story is the one that centrally affects the rest, so yours has to be in a constant changing state! It's getting rather annoying, really...

**Shadow:** And whose fault is that?

**Redwingblackbird:** headdesk let's just finish it...

--

"Jamal..." Kath murmured, taking two steps back from the window, grey eyes wide with recongnition.

"Damn it, he came..." Raistlin growled. "He really came... Clay! Take Kathalita down to the Queen's Keep. Not a word of her presence here in the castle is to be breathed while he is in the walls, understand?" Clay nodded feverently, but Kath avoided his grasp.

"You can't lock me up!"

"It's for your safety!"

"Why? If there's a fight, I'll be in it!"

"You should know who he is, or has Sala failed to explain?"

"It doesn't matter, I'll stay out here where I belong!"

"NO!" Raist shouted now, furious. "HE'S AFTER YOU, YOU'RE THE PRINCESS, AND YOU'RE STAYING IN THE KEEP WHERE HE CAN'T GET TO YOU, THAT'S FINAL!" The air element snarled before disapperating down to her room, a half-dragon right behind her.

"What's going on?" Shadow demanded. "Who is Jamal, why is he here?" As a reply, she gripped his hand and slammed her eyes shut, throwing them both into Sala's memories.

They stood in a lush green garden. Far away, a wall encircled a large area of gardens like theirs and a glittering white palace a small distance away. The sky was black and filled with more stars than either of them would ever see again, the young earth hung like a giant moon above the palace, and the sun peeked out from behind it, throwing long shadows across the Moon's silver face.

A girl sat about 10 feet from them, her long black hair flowing in the strong breeze, looking forlornly over to another girl with white hair laughing in the arms of a less-tanned, younger-looking Raistlin, who seemed the happiest man alive.

Slowly, another boy walked up to her and spoke in a language that was foreign to Shadow, yet Kath's presence allowed him to understand it.

"_May I join you, Princess?"_

"_Please don't call me that,"_ the girl begged, her tone soft. The boy sat beside her, his white, old-style suit standing out from the girl's black dress.

"_What's wrong, Sala?" _he asked, his pale blue eyes gazing at her with worry. At this, she turned, and for the first time the two onlookers could clearly see her small, weakened wings- wings blacker than the sky stretched above them. Tears were gathered in the corners of her blue eyes- blue as the earth in all it's beauty.

"_Jamal, is it so wrong that I'm not exactly like her?"_

"_Why on the moon do you ask that?"_

"_When we were younger, everyone wanted to be _her_ friend. All the boys wanted to court _her_. I'm nothing more than her shadow, a useless shadow! I do nothing wrong and mother still punishes me! I don't understand it! I don't understand what's wrong with me..."_

"_There is nothing wrong with you," _he stated firmly. _"You're wonderful just the way you are."_

"_Tell me you're saying that as a friend, and not someone who'd easily lie for my benefit."_

"_I'd never lie to you Sala, I-" _a blush spread across Jamal's face and he took the princess's hand. "_I love you..."_

The scene flew away and the two found themselves standing next to the young Sala, her eyes wide in fear. Around them spanned a room of cool, blue-green marble. Before them, atop a raised dais, stood Selina, facing a panoramic window that encompassed both the earth and a second, black moon.

"_You sent for me, mother?"_ The poor girl managed.

"_Yes," _the queen said, turning. Her butterfly wings spanned at least 4 feet and were a huge contrast to her daughters'. Her dusky-rose colored gown matched her wings and perfectly-shaped fingernails and hugged her figure- hourglass, even after having given birth to twins. Hair the color of savanah grass reached to her knees, and cold purple eyes glared down at the younger, darker girl.

"_I don't like you seeing this Jamal boy. He's _his _son, we cannot trust him."_

"_You trust Raistlin perfectly well."_

"_Raistlin has already expressed his disgust toward his foster father's beliefs."_

"_Raistlin would pluck out his own eyes if you told him it would get him closer to Luna!"_

"_This is about you, not your sister. Starting tomorrow at Earthrise, Jamal will be banished from this sanctuary, no longer welcome within our walls."_

"_You can't do that!" _Sala's voice cracked, her face full of despair. _"He loves me, you can't expect him to stay away!"_

"_You really believe a _man_ can find it in his heart to _love_? Much less love _you_. No, he cannot, will not, and does not. My decision stands firm."_

The scene dissolved again, and now they were out in the middle of nowhere, silvery sand all around.

"_Come back with me!" _Jamal insisted in the semidarkness.

"_What?" _Sala sounded stunned.

"_There's nothing for you here but more pain at the hands of your mother and sister. Come with me, to a place where you can be loved. I can't stand to see you tortured like this..." _He held her tightly, and they were both a few years older from the last memory. Sala clung to him as though he were the only way to stay afloat in her life, which was rapidly sinking.

"_Your father-"_

"_Father will be dead soon. Then I will be king... and.." _he lifted her chin to look into her eyes. _"I would like to have you as my queen..."_

As the scene rearranged itself once more, Kath found herself in a memory she had not visited before. A bloody battlefield rolled in all directions. If not for the strange sky above them, she and Shadow would have never known they were on the moon.

"_SALA!" _Jamal screamed, piercing the silence. She walked with vacant eyes toward him as he ran to her.

"_How?" _she managed when he was near enough to hear her soft, defeated voice. "_How could you do this?"_

"_Sala, I told you my father was ill. He went mad, noone could stop him from sending the army! He's dead now, Selina finished him!"_

"_At the cost of her own life, Jamal... Luna is queen now, and Raistlin will be king. We're all going to Earth, so we can try to start again. We've already buried our dead..." _Tears began to flow from her eyes and Jamal held her gently, resting her head on his chest. "_Come with us,"_ she begged.

"_What?" _now it was his turn to sound surprised. _"I can't Sala, I have duties to my people now... I am their leader..."_

"_I understand... but maybe if they came too, they'd have a fighting chance..."_

The scene reformed again and troops of elementals glided through a young Earth's atmosphere, followed closely by ranks of a pale humanlike race. Raistlin, Sala, Luna, and Jamal lead the procession, unaware of the malice following just out of sight. Suddenly, a wormhole wrenched open behind them, and the people of the dark moon were sucked inside, being twisted into monsterous creatures as they passed an almost-formless being. It seemed to have no legs, but long arms ending in pointed fingers reached out from a black body radiating with energy. The only suggestion of eyes were the red irises set into it's horned head.

"_Jamal," _it spoke in a voice deeper than the darkest ocean. _"My son, my sucsessor..."_ It reached out to him and he could do nothing but stare in terror, suspended in the air.

"_Go," _he begged of Sala, who was desperately trying to snap him out of the trance. _"Go with the others... Be safe..."_

"_No!" _she screamed, tears gathering in her eyes. _"I won't leave you!"_

Gently, he took her face in his hands and kissed her. Brushing away a stray tear he whispered, _"You have no choice. Dearest, I swear to you I will find you. No matter how long it takes, how far the journey, or how painful the task I will find you." _A spasm of pain went through him as the shadow's fingers dug into his flesh and wrenched him away from Sala, toward the wormhole. Jamal's eyes became dark and he laughed darkly. "_Foolish girl. You weakened him with your 'love'. How could he care at all about you, really? Your charm is lifted and I will stay in control as long as it takes to keep it that way._" With that, he disappeared into the spiraling time warp.

She attempted to follow, but the shadow shot a beam of darkness into her and she tumbled through the sky, landing roughly onto hard earth and going unconcious.

Kathy and Shadow found themselves in darkness, unable even to see eachother as voices floated around them.

"_The wormhole opened too far into the future..."_

"_No matter how long it takes..."_

"_It'll be a miracle if she even sees him returning from wherever she ends up after she dies..."_

"_...how far the journey..."_

"_There's no hope, but of course we can't tell her that..."_

"_...or how painful the task..."_

Sala's eyes opened suddenly and completely, as though wakening from a nightmare- red wildfires set into her ashy skin.

"_...I will find you..."_

Kathy gasped for air as though resurfacing from a dive she really shouldn't have attempted. She waved off Shadow's offered help keeping her balance and spoke between breaths:

"That... is who... the hell... Jamal is..."

Kels had to talk to Kathy. Desperately. She rushed down the corridor toward her sister's room, but was pulled into a small, empty, dark closet. Her dragon's eyes adjusted and recoiled to see Xak standing in the shadows. She wrenched her arm free and tried to get away, but the vampire wouldn't let her, his unbelievably-strong body blocking the door.

"Please, Kelsey..." he pleaded, golden eyes gazing into hers. "Just hear me out..." Something in his voice made her listen. "I hate myself for what I did to you last night, I really do. It's just-" he had to stop and think about how to word what he wanted to say. "It's just like your blood. It calls out to me, makes me thirsty to drink even when I've fed recently- but that's a temptation I can control, one I'm used to, though it's stronger than I've ever felt. I've never been attracted to anyone like I am to you. Everytime I see you it's all I can do to keep my distance. Your body's more tempting than your blood, because I'm not strong against it, and last night I gave in... I'd say I'm sorry, but I don't think that quite covers it..."

The darkness was quickly becoming sticky with their breath, and even though Kels had flattened herself against the back wall of the room to stay as far from him as she could, they were still only inches apart. The half-elf was suddenly very glad she'd changed into an old sweatshirt and jeans before coming- the dress she had worn to the dance the night before may have provoked him.

"What am I to you?" she asked quietly.

"An enchantress," he growled, breathing in her scent, "but I wish you were my mate."

This time when she struggled, he let her go. She sprinted to Kathy's door and knocked urgently. Almost immediately, the thick oak opened wide and Kels slipped inside.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking every bit the concerned friend the half-dragon needed. She commenced to spill her guts, and told the air elemental everything from the first dark kiss in the garden to being trapped in the closet with him moments before.

"Oh, Kels..." Kath murmered when she was done. "You're gonna be alright, sis..." She draped one storm-gray wing around Kelsey's shoulders as fat tears started running down her face.

_How could this happen!? _Raistlin growled in his mind as he rushed down seemingly-endless corridors. _Even in the wormhole, Jamal would have aged to the point of death. Dammit... Now it doesn't matter how it happened, it only matters how we're going to get rid of him..._

Jamal sneered as he climbed the moss-ridden steps of Raistlin's castle. Only his adopted brother would build a stone palace during such an era of steel and glass and then disguise it with clean, fresh air against humanity's backdrop of smog. But no matter, soon Sala would rejoin him and they would crush Raistlin's pathetic excuse for a reign. As he reached the top of the stairs, he was met by the king himself, Luna at his side.

"Ah, my brother. Quite a kingdom you have built for yourself," Jamal lied cooly, "and Luna, you are still as radiant as ever." He kissed the queen's pale hand and ignored her husband's low growl.

"It has been some time Jamal," Luna said, her voice tinged with sorrow and warning.

"Surely not so long. Where is Sala? I expect she's somewhere in the castle."

"Yes," Raistlin replied. "I"ll take you to where she is resting." He turned and walked through a wide doorway. The entrance hall was high-ceilinged and held up by pillars. A kalideoscope design twisted in the tiles on the floor.

"Is she alright?" Jamal asked, worried. His eyes flashed blue for a moment, though no one saw.

"She is not in any pain," Raist assured him, but something in his words made him even more scared. They walked into a courtyard of sorts. Something had been thrown into the ground at the center long ago, and vines now twined around it haphazardly. Round the obstruction grew a ring of black rose bushes, cut away at four places, facing the four entrances to the garden, to bring the object into full view. A path of flat gray stones connected the entrances and the item, and outside it's ring, patches of weeping ivy crept up the walls, unnatural black flowers drooping as if in repose.

_What a dreary place, _Jamal found himself thinking.

As they drew near to the centerpiece, strange green clouds which had appeared earlier and circled above, growled darkly. "Perhaps we should get inside, for shelter." Jamal noted.

"Yes, I think that's a good idea, Raist," Luna added. Raistlin nodded, unable to fight, and they hurried inside before a storm of horrid proportions broke. Red lightning streaked across a murky sky, and freezing rain pounded down into the ground. A pale elf ran up to the king and shouted something. He swore and turned back to them.

"I have to go take care of something. Luna, you're needed up in the south wing. Jamal-" he hesitated. "I'm trusting you to wander around the place and not cause any trouble, alright?" He didn't even wait for an answer before rushing off with the elf, Luna headed in another direction entirely. He wandered about almost aimlessly, passing faces he didn't bother to remember or really see. All seemed to pass around him in slow motion, people passing out of time and place. Though just as gray than the other people around her, if not more, one girl stood out from the rest. She leaned against a pillar, looking out at the storm deep in thought. Perched on her shoulder was a raven, soaked through even it's glossy feathers. It took him a moment to see that she, too, was dripping, as though having just walked in from the rain.

"Sala?" he asked. She twitched- she knew he was talking to her but refused to answer. Standing beside her, Jamal could see the forest that stretched beyond the castle, how the treetops swung wildly in the cold half-light of storm.

"Can't you hear them?" she murmered, so soft he wasn't sure he had heard her at all. "Hear them screaming?" Her own voice was lowered in pain, he realized.

Kathy's own mind was a tempest twice the force of the gale outside. Events were in motion that both made leaving a necessity and an impossibility. Kelsey, left in the presence of Xak, could easily become a dangerous force in itself for anyone involved- which could be solved by taking her away to their home and safehaven, where he wouldn't find them. However, Jamal and the shadow made leaving, at least for Kathy, impossible- she could not let herself be silent when her voice was Sala's now. Kelsey going alone was out of the question, but Kage wouldn't leave her to face the army of monsters Jamal brought with him alone for any reason... And above all, she could not escape the screams of the winds under the terror of a decidedly unnatural force. What she wouldn't give to take their pain into herself and ease their burden...

"Sala?" she flinched, knowing that she looked just like her aunt, but when she tried to tell him the truth, she found she couldn't command her voice to do so. So she stayed still, willing the winds to let her feel their pain- anything was better than sensing Jamal standing beside her.

_Let me tell him..._ Sala begged in her mind. _Let me tell him the truth, without any help from you... _Kathy's blood turned to acid. _He's possessed, he'll only take it from me..._

It was two days later that Raistlin demanded an audience with Jamal. He sat on his throne, still as stone. His dark, sun-beaten hands gripped the ends of worn bronze armrests. Luna stood behind him, the dark circles under her eyes standing out from her pale skin and sheer linen dress, one hand's long, thin fingers rested on his shoulder. Kathy stood a little apart from them, light gray dress almost indistinguashable from her skin, which was bleached from lack of sleep. Still, they looked beautiful, untouchable, and unbelievably cold.

"You wished to see me?" he asked, climbing the stairs to the top of the dais.

"What is it you want from us, Jamal?" the king demanded. "You come with that shadow, that englufs the land and sky and drains my wife and daughter's energy, not allowing them to rest. My people are growing weak from a disease that makes them feel death when they are otherwise perfectly healthy. I see the army of creatures that grows everyday as the menace of that thing grows stronger, and I want to know what's going on. _Now_." His voice was abnormally taut and to the point.

"I only wish for Sala to join me. I fufilled my promise, and now I wish for hers to be fulfilled- for her to become my queen." The princess was not looking at him. He lifted her chin with the crook of one finger, but she turned her head away dismissively. A growl could be heard from something hiding in her shadow. "Yet she will not speak to me. She has not aknowledged my presence or even looked upon me. She floats about, as if half dead, or a ghost! You have done something to her! Free her from whatever enchantment you have placed."

"I have done nothing- if she is enchanted, it is her own doing, or that of another. Perhaps your dark friend outside could answer why she became this way _after_ you arrived." Jamal's black eyes darkened still more, if possible. He spoke in a voice that seemed only partially his own:

"If the girl does not come to me or is delivered to me by dawn, you will suffer and I will take her myself, leaving this castle an empty ruin." Lightning quick, a claw slashed across his face, cutting diagonally over and under his left eye. A drop of blood fell from Kathy's hand.

"Begone, demon." She spoke clearly and strongly, though every sign showed she might soon collapse. "Thou shalt not threaten my family or my people! Begone! And never return!" Lightning flashed in her gray eyes as he ran, white cloak soaring behind him, and sent a strong but brief gale to slam the heavy stone door behind him. With that, she fell to her knees and against Kage, who had materialized from her shadow not a moment too soon.

"This has to end," Raistlin moaned, his head in his hands. "I won't let him have Kathalita, but refusing to give her up will send us to a war I'm not sure we can win." A scream shot from the weakened girl and she started back awake and Raist sighed. "Take her and Luna to the keep, Shadow. I'll call the warriors to arms. We'll protect the two of them at all costs."

"No..." it was hardly a whisper. Kathy struggled to get free of Kage's arms and get back on her feet before saying, "I'll fight."

"You can hardly stand! Three nights of sleep deprivation due to nightmares the intensity of which I can only imagine and this living-horror of unending pain have left both you and your mother in no state to even be walking about!"

"You're forgetting that all elementals of any real power is in our same condition. We need everyone we can get- even if they're in a sorry state..." Her knees gave out then, and Kage gathered her into his arms. "Put me down, I'm fine!" she protested.

"No, you're not," a protective edge lined the dragon's voice that silenced her.

"Though she has a point. If we took everyone out of our force that's in her condition, we'd have a small band of dragons and elves, nothing that could really save us. All we can do is pray." His tired golden eyes rested on Kage. "Take her somewhere she can rest, then round up all who can fight." The dragon nodded and dissipated in a dark portal.

High in one of the tallest towers, a sanctuary was tucked away. It was here that Shadow left Kathy. She gazed up through a cross-shaped window and was surprised to see the darkness outside lift for a moment, and soft light trickled through. _Rest, child,_ a gentle voice said. _This will soon end, rest..._

Down in the throne room, Luna collapsed, Raistlin right behind her. All over the castle, elementals were falling into deep and complete sleep. Dragons and elves looked about themselves helplessly as lovers and friends fell unconcious all around. A few looked up to see the black clouds changed to white, and motes of light floated down like snow, restoring energy in the exhausted creatures.

Shadow, horribly confused, hurried back to the sanctuary, Xak on his heels. They found Kathy fast asleep, smiling peacefully- at her side sat Kelsey, staring up in wonder at the cross, which was by now blazing with the pure, pulsing white light. As Shadow lifted the air elemental in his arms and left, the vampire placed a hand on the remaining dragon's shoulder. She looked up at him blankly.

"You alright?" he asked. She nodded.

"I've been here... I just needed some time." He nodded.

"I'll go, then..." he turned, but she held onto his hand.

"Please don't," she blurted. "Can we talk?" He nodded and sat down.

It was almost comical how everyone in the castle woke up at exactly the same time. Even more so how quickly they fell into line behind Raistlin and Kathy and formed an army to be reckoned with. Earth elementals on the ground outside the walls shifted like horses chewing at their bits, waiting to be let loose. Occasionally they'd look up to see their king pacing as a lion does in his cage, though his daughter stood perfectly still that entire hour before dawn, just breathing and giving no other sign of life.

"Xak," Kels murmered as they walked to join the other troops. "How long has it been since you've fed?" His now-dark eyes looked down at her.

"Almost a week. Since the creatures out there have started to matirialize, it's been near-impossible to get out, much less back in. I'm not invincible."

"I know, and you'll be weaker now without that blood..." they had reached a small room in the hallway, and the dragon slipped inside. Once the vampire had joined her and the door was safely closed, she continued. "So I want you to take mine."

"What?!"

"You don't need every drop, you said so yourself. Just take what you need. And you can't convince me you don't want a drink." He bit his lip in the semidarkness.

"What if I lose control?"

"I trust you." He grinned wickedly and leaned in, kissing her lips and cheek, but stopped before he reached her neck- she had flinched.

"You're still afraid," he whispered. "Don't worry," he said pulling away and lifting her hand, "it won't hurt..." her arm rested in his hand, no resistance or tension of any sort.

Slowly, his fangs sunk into the white skin of her wrist. For a moment, a flinch of surprise went through her, but it didn't take long for the dragon to relax entirely, almost wishing Xak wouldn't stop when he realeased her.

"You alright?" his deep voice asked, genuinely concerned.

"Yes..." Kelsey breathed, coming out of her trance. "And you?"

Red eyes and gleaming white fangs grinned back at her.

"Sala has not been restored to me!" Jamal called over the walls, the sun lifting it's golden head above the dark horizon line. "You have chosen your fate!" The great shadow behind him reached up one hand into the air and the other onto the earth, and darkness swallowed the sky and ground. It blotted out the sun and filled the water and made the trees quiver in fright. The land and sky trembled and ripples went through them, as if they were no more than ponds of water.

Kathy jumped from her position of observing to the outermost wall, standing tall and looking down at the white-headed prince. They glared at eachother for a moment, and he turned back to his army, ranting to them, raising the bloodlust that already raged. The air element just bowed her head- her people needed no encouragement. Enough rumors had spread about the reason for all this mess, and those who were willing to defend her had assembled...

She murmered a song under her breath and shook her head side to side, as if freeing herself from an invisible restraining rope about the neck. She continued to sing as she gazed almost sadly at the now-desolate sky.

Without warning, she shot into the sky, her dark wings camoflaging her against the blackness. An immense pillar of flames erupted far to her left, and the forest seemed to grow greater than ever in the distance at right. Closer came a small earthquake that cracked the earth under the opposing army's three-toed feet, and a great wave grew out of the mermaid's lake and twisted, faster and faster...

A roar ripped the almost-solid air and two creatures rose, floating as though in space, as though gravity was not a concern. A huge red griffon stood on it's hind paws, white mane blowing in the wind, green eyes challenging. A strange beast ran to it's side- it's lower body that of a huge tortoise, though it's tail was much too long. The torso and arms of a man were highly armoured with scaly hide, and Clay's now red-purple eyes glared from the face of a snapping turtle...

The lake fell silent and Kryz took her place- almost unrecognizable in her purest form. Yellow eyes burned from nearly-black purple skin, and her long green hair floated to the flow of a nonexistant current. Weevil seemingly climbed into his place with the four spindly legs that now sprouted from his spider's head, his body's skin bark...

A familiar avian screech was soon accompanied by the arrival of the final elemental Speaker. Kathy glided down to the center of the formation, her silvery wings reflecting what little light there was.

"This is useless Kathalita!" Jamal screamed. "We have already won!"

"How funny!" she replied, the sharp coldness in her voice jarring any who heard it. "You say it is over, yet it hasn't begun!"

With that, the monsters rushed forward, the elements hurried to meet them on the field, and the true battle began. Elves remained on the walls, shooting down any who got too close. Dragons twisted high in the air, breathing hell onto their enemy's back ranks. The five elemental speakers joined their people. Tooth and claw became stained with blood, both red and black.

Kelsey fought bravely, as a true warrior should- with armour and broadsword and flame. She needed no backup and did not use her dragon's form, though it would have served her better.

Xak was a short distance away, his style far more feral than even the monsters themselves. He snapped necks and ripped out hearts with all the gay abandon of an alchoholic in a brewery.

Kage was fighting as hard as was possible, occasionally using his heartless form. However, he seemed distracted and was constantly looking over his shoulder or that of his enemy.

Kathy wasn't keeping an eye on anyone. She spun and destroyed with simple, unpredicatble movements while moving ever closer to the army's captain and his dark puppeteer- a whirling dance of death.

And suddenly he was there, blocking Darkness with what one would hardly call a tinkerblade.

"Seh," she spat. _You_. She spun to slam both swords into his side, but was blocked again. His seeming-effortlessness infuriated her, and she added more fire to her battle, not looking out in the slightest for the shadow, reaching out one clawed hand, gathering energy into it's palm. The Jamal she had been fighting disappeared and she turned to see the real one still on his lofty perch, the shadow's red eyes burning beside his own.

"Yaln ser brena, Sala," he called down as the bolt shot straight for her.

It never hit. At just that moment, a dragon-elf threw himself between the warrior and her attacker. The energy struck him and exploded. He fell to the earth as if in slow motion.

"Shadow!" she screamed, and ran to him. Falling to her knees, she begged, "speak to me..." tears welled in her eyes as she saw the wide gashes cut into his chest and sides, but his amethist eyes still flickered to her.

"Rodwen," he murmered, a hint of a smile crossing his face, "you're safe..." Tears were spilling down her face now. "Please don't," he whispered. "Angels shouldn't cry..." This only deepened her sorrow, however, and she could feel Sala in her head, already trying to change that energy into anger. Anger to fight.

No, she'd had enough of fighting. Look what had happened to him because of her...

Guess what'll happen to the rest of them if you don't get up and keep on...

No, I want you out, out, OUT!

Far across the field, three creatures had ganged up against Kels and one had struck a fatal blow, running a sword just underneath the dragon's sternum. She fell. Xak caught her, fighting off any who got too near, always returning, begging her to stay with him. Her lips moved almost silently as she whispered:

"What by blood was sealed, by my blood be undone..."

An ear-splitting scream crossed the air, which grew otherwise silent. It was a scream of pain, as though someone's soul was being destroyed. Those who turned saw silver wings envelop a dying boy, and from the creature who held him, a skeletal dragon rose. Black fire burned in it's eye sockets and it looked upon the evil King with utter disdain. Jamal disappeared and he found himself in the dark garden again, with Sala sitting where the ivy-covered center had been. Her blue eyes stared at him, emptier than the wormhole he had travelled through to get there.

"I'm dead, Jamal," she murmered. But a boyish grin stretched across his face and the blackness of his eyes cleared to crystaline blue.

"How can you be? You're sitting right there. But I thought your hair had paled to brown, and your eyes gray... And why are we in this awful place, can't we go somewhere less gloomy?" She shook her head slowly.

"No, that girl is not me. It hurts to think you were decieved... she is my neice, Luna's daughter. Almost funny, how alike we are, and yet so different. I can now see that I was forced to live beside her, within the same body, to be ready for this. To end this. My visitation with her is over, but now that I am free I have little time to explain, and it must be here, where my body was put to rest, along with the sword on which I was slain."

"_We are free, we are free, little one!" _Sala's dragon exclaimed in my head, and I felt a moment's relief. Alone at last, it seemed my spirit couldn't fill up the space that my dark side had left behind. "_And now I know what I was brought back to do. You mustn't fear for me, or your sister, or the poor lad who saved your life. I cannot gaurantee they'll recover, but they will be given every chance..."_

_Lies, LIES! _Father screamed in my head.

_No, it must be true, Sala would not lie to me._..

_She LIES! _His dark cloud began to reform in my head.

_NO!_ I fought back. _YOU are the one full of empty promises and lies. I'll not listen to you anymore! I shall end this now, as I should have before, the instant I became your host, you parasite. _"Sala," I called aloud, "Love, wait for me, I'm coming."

_NO!_ the snake roared, but I had made up my mind. I would stop causing pain to these people. I would leave my adopted brother alone to rule as he saw fit. I would stop doing whatever the darkness wanted and end a reign of tyranny. And all it would take...

One hand clasped around the hilt of the ivy covered sword, heaving it from the ground as I cleared it with the other. Such magnificent craftsmanship, they really don't make them like they used to.

"Yaln ser brena, dakka," I whispered.

The bone dragon lunged and dragged a howling shadow down with it into a rift in the earth, down into the flames of Hell. Monsters all around began to melt or dissipate, cursing. Kathy saw an explosion of cyan fire and knew no more.

When she came to, she was lying in a hospital bed with Clay and Kryz murmering beside her.

"Sala..." she groaned as she began to remember what had happened. "Jamal... Oh my God! Kelsey! Kage!" she sprang out of bed and out the door of her room against the stern calls of her friends. It took her very little time to find where Kelsey was being kept, due to the amount of yelling and number of things being thrown.

"What's going on here?" she asked two healers in green robes standing in the doorway.

"He won't go away ma'am, and we can't have him in the room with her." She was of course referring to Xak, who was leaning against the opposite wall, glaring with black eyes.

"Why not?"

"Even if he doesn't drink what's left of her blood, he might turn her, and we won't have that!"

"Is she stable?"

"Yes, has been since the second day." The avian's eyebows furrowed.

"How long have I been out?"

"Nearly a week, miss." She started, then turned to Xak.

"If I go in, and I see that she's fine, will you take my word and leave these poor ladies alone?"

"No," he growled. "I want to see her myself!" Kathy nodded and went back to the nurses.

"Can _I_ see her, at least? She's practically my _sister_..." the nurses moved aside and after a moments hesitation, the air elemental went in. She sat in a chair that had been left at the bedside and looked remorsefully at Kelsey's sleeping face. It was pale and drawn, as most people are in recovery, and bandages were wrapped tight around her arms and torso. The bandages just under the rib cage were clearly damp and in need of changing. "Would you leave for a moment?" she asked the nurses, her voice cracking. The two left and she stood. "You can come out now," she whispered, and Xak was at her side in an instant.

"I'm sorry," she murmered. Her eyes were fogging over- she shut them. "This is all my fault." Xak ruffled her hair.

"S'alright." He said. "I feel pretty bad too."

"Whatever for?"

"There was a short time where... I just thought... the only way I could save her..." he shook his head. "But then you kind of exploded in this brilliant blue fire and a dragon hovered over the battlefield and she stayed alive just long enough for the healers to stabilize her condition.

"What color were it's eyes?"

"White, it must've been blind."

_Gandora, _Kathy thought with a smile and remembered the dream fragment from just as she blacked out.

"_This is my final gift to you, child. After this, you will be alone to fend for yourself, as every fledgling must. Rise, little phoenix-child, and fly without burden..."_

"I only wish I could tell you Shadow was in the same condition." Snapping back into reality, the avian turned on him.

"Why? Where is he? What's going on?" The vampire's near-black eyes were filled with pity.

"The healers have been working with him since the battle nonstop. He's still critical, but his condition hasn't worsened. Hasn't improved either-" but Kathy was already out the door. Due to the crowd of healers in the room, all arguing, it took her a little bit to get to Shadow, but when she did, her anger reached a new height.

"Am I the only one here compitant enough to know how to handle this?" Dead silence followed this remark. "Alright, I want the best and brightest in here. No assistants, trainees, or interns. NOW." The room cleared except for four- one of every element but her own. Immediately she set them to work, grinding solid rocks of specific minerals, draining liquids from plants, and the like. Quickly she mixed the ingredents they brought her and, slower, replaced the sloppily-wrapped bandages with fresh ones which had a layer of the thick substance they had created.

She worked carefully, slowly. And even slower, her fears eased. It was not really as bad as it could have been- Kage's spinal chord was still intact, and his only broken bones were an arm and a leg. But Lord was it ever horrible. His flesh was ripped to shreds in places, and the blood, which had clotted on the old bandages, began to flow anew. She shuddered when she saw his wings and prayed that somehow they'd heal, for all that remained were tatters of skin hanging to bone. It did not take long for the concoction to take effect, and like all good medicine, it hurt on application. Though unconcious, the dragon cried out in agony. The avian let the healers take over for her when tears overwhelmed her eyes.

Kathy took his hand and held on tight. With every scream, she shuddered. The healers could hear her whispering, but could hardly make out these tear-filled appologies and prayers. Only when it was done, and he had quieted, and the medics had declared him stable, she let him go. Clay and Kryz had no trouble pulling her away- she had seen him in too much pain already, and it had all been her fault. She answered her friends' inquiries to how she felt half-mindedly, spent as she was.

The next days passed in a haze for everyone as those who would recover regained conciousness, and those who wouldn't were buried. It was in these days that Kathy came upon Jamal's corpse in Sala's garden. The sword looked as though it had never been moved, though a fresh soul had been claimed by it's edge. Strangest of all was the position in which the body was found- with arms outstretched, as though to embrace the blade.

When Kelsey awoke, she was received with tears by Xak and Kathy. Xak stayed at her bedside until she was well enough to walk on her own, and never left her side. The avian smiled, but walked as one half-dead, an empty shell and nothing more. She went to see Shadow twice a day, and stayed until the doctors shooed her out, insisting that she not waste away on his behalf.

How could she not? She wondered. He had become like a part of her- and now he still wasn't expected to recover. But he was still alive, she assured herself. Maybe without her those mumbling buffon healers would have argued until he had died. Don't give yourself so much credit, she scolded. All he needed was time, the fact that he was a heartless would heal him in time, given that his body had enough energy. Then she sighed. He would recover, he had to. He just HAD to...

Sitting in this stupid garden of darkness wasn't helping. They had buried Jamal two days ago, and placed a headstone. It read:

Here lie two unfortunates who were used all their lives.

Thsir love for eachother ended in tragedy.

Now let them rest in peace, ineachother's arms, as it should have been long ago.

She cried for the both of them. Sala had been a part of her too long- and she had loved him. Truly, even the spirit she had so often referred to as "that evil bitch" had taken a part of her away when she left. Gandora had left her as well, the only loving mother figure she had known.

And then, as the breeze stroked her hair consolingly, she heard a voice so familiar it hurt even worse. It sang a song slow and sad:

"_I had a dream of the wide open prairie... I had a dream of the pale morning sky... I had a dream that we flew on golden wings, and we were the same, just the same, you and I..."_

She knew the song, it was modern and she had sung it several times at her job, but now it reverberated as though someone had smacked an exposed bone with a hammer.

"_Follow your heart, little child of the west wind... Follow the voice that's calling you home... Follow your dreams, but always remember me, I am your brother under the sun..."_

"We are like birds of a feather," she joined in for the chorus. "We are two hearts joined together... We will be forever as one, my brother under the sun..."

"_Whenever you hear the wind in the canyon... Whenever you see the buffalo run... Wherever you go, I'll be there beside you... You are my brother under the sun..."_

When the wind, and the song, died, Kathy felt even more alone. Sala had spoken for the last time, and she had run to hell, laughing all the way. The avian curled up and felt as though she would die.

It was in this state that he found her. The dragon was using the walls to help support himself, the bandages had prohibited the use of anyting more than a pair of loose-fitting pants, and the going was slow, but he found her. "Kathy," he smiled warmly. She looked up with a start and in an instant was on her feet.

"Shadow?!" she exclaimed. "Shadow!" The avian ran to him and hugged him as tight as her flimsy arms could manage. "What did you do that for, scaring me like that?!" she accused. She was trembling, but she didn't care- his arms around her made her feel safer than she ever had.

"I just wanted to protect you," he lifted her head with the crook of one finger and smiled. "It's what I do."

Guilt made her look down, and her fingertips traced the edges of cuts on his chest that hadn't finished healing.

"Kathy," he said, firmly but lovingly, "I will do anything to keep you safe, you should know that."

"But-" his finger on her lips silenced her.

"Please, Rodwen," he begged, "I couldn't bear it if I almost lost you again." The hurt filtered through in his voice, and she nodded twice. She buried her face in his chest and his arms obediently tightened around her.

"I'm just so glad you're alright..." They remained this way a long time before the dragon loosened his grip just enough to kiss the tears from her eyelashes.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too."

It was Saturday night at Spill the Beans. School was a few weeks in and no one had seen nose nor tail of the keyboard player that had so often made the live music covers that much more colorful. The musicians put everything they had into it, but were really hoping Raven would come back from her extended trip as quickly as possible. Around midnight, Cloud and Leo started up Alan Jackson's "Five o'Clock Somewhere". They traded off verses and Cloud put all his heart into one line right near the end:

"At a moment like this, I can't help but wonder- what would good old Raven do?"

"Funny you should ask buddy!" A familiar presence joined the two of them at the third mike. They jumped at the familiar sight of Raven's heavily chained black pants and tube top. Her gray eyes sparkled as the laughed and then continued through the screams of the crowd, "I'd say pour me somethin tall and strong, make it a hurricane before I go insane! It's only half past twelve, but I don't care."

"Pour me somethin tall and strong, make it a hurricane before I go insane," they recovered and joined in as it repeated. "It's only half past twelve, but I don't care." Each pointed at the another and muttered, "they don't care. I don't care! It's five o'clock somewhere!"

The instant the song was over, Cloud, Leo, Napoleon, and Sparks swamped Raven, demanding to know where she'd been and what had kept her so long. She laughed and began her long-winded, watered-down version as she lead them offstage.


End file.
